Genesis 4 Serendipitous Discovery
by SpencerandHotchlover
Summary: Sequel to Genesis 1, 2 and 3 Continuation of Bryon's and Scott's life together. Jasper and Bella are minor characters in this. M/M Relationship.


Genesis 4

Serendipitous Discovery

"We are gathered here on this day to join together Bryon Franklin Whitlock to Scott Nathaniel Blackwood for eternity..." Bella intoned solemnly as Bryon and Scott stood together holding hands as Bella performed the ceremony that was a little different from the traditional mainly because they were both male and also because no vampire believed in God or of they did they believed that they were damned for simply being what they were—blood drinkers. Bella had indeed gotten certified online very easily and it hadn't taken her long to go through the process and get herself registered, especially not with vampire speed.

Things had indeed been very busy for the last couple of months as Bella with the help of several of her daughters had put together a simple ceremony that didn't involve all the frills that females seemed to require. There were no bridesmaids, or either Scott or Bryon walking down the aisle as that would have been just silly not to mention embarrassing for both young men. There was a best man though, which was Kieran one of Peter and Charlotte's son's. Both Bryon and Scott stood in front of Bella at the edge of a beautiful meadow that was part of the Whitlocks property while the whole family including Peter and Charlotte and their six children stood behind in their good clothes watching the ceremony.

Scott had met the whole family one by one just a few days before the ceremony and at first he had been rather nervous about meeting the members of the family that he had not yet met, but when they had all welcomed him to the family with open arms he had relaxed. He was a Whitlock now and that was all that mattered to any of them, well, that and the fact that he had made their brother or nephew blissfully happy.

"Let the bond between Bryon and Scott grow strong and continue to deepen as the decades and centuries pass. Let them always support, love and cherish each other in both good times and tough. Let nothing come between them and the bond they share. Let the two always defend each other from all enemies that will try to come between them and let them both always be loyal, faithful and truthful with each other. Now the rings if you please."

Kieran came forward and handed his godmother the two rings that Bryon and Scott had had especially made at Cartier's. Both rings were simple bands of platinum with rubies encrusted all along their length and on the inside where it wouldn't be visible unless they were taken off was just three words engraved on each one in beautiful calligraphy and those words was simply: Eternity. Love forever. And the initials B & S.

"Let these rings represent eternity as a circle has no beginning and no ending and so it is the perfect symbol to represent a commitment to each of other that will be endless and last forever."

Bella said holding up both wedding bands for a moment so that everybody could see them, then handed one ring to Bryon and the other to Scott and both men slipped the bands on their mate's finger at the exact same time.

"You may now kiss the grooms," Bella told the boys still solemn although the twinkle in her red eyes told everyone that she was indeed enjoying herself very much.

Scott and Bryon obeyed and kissed each other happily, although they were sure not to take it to far so that none of the family would have anything to tease them about for the rest of eternity and they would if given enough material.

Everybody in the very small crowd cheered and if you had counted there would only be 33 vampires present if you didn't include Bryon or Scott that it is as with them their would be 35.

Also the way that Bella and several of her daughters had decorated the outside was simple, but elegant and beautiful as there were blue and gray streamers all around hanging from the trees.

The light gray streamers were there to represent the color of Scott's eyes when he had been human as his eyes had been that color before he was turned into a vampire. It was symbolism at it's finest and Scott had been genuinely touched when he had seen how Bella had decorated the clearing.  
Every member of the family was dressed in tuxedo or dresses even Jasper and Bella who preferred casual and simple as this was their son and his mate's wedding after all. Those members of the family who hadn't had any really nice clothes had had to go shopping usually with a female member of the family, since most of the females had excellent taste while some of the males didn't.

"Congratulations, son," Jasper said coming forward as soon as the ceremony was over, "and welcome officially to the family Scott," he added given both boys hugs.

"Thanks, dad," Bryon said with an absolutely goofy grin that caused Jasper to hide a laugh behind a cough.

"Congratulations, you two," Peter said coming forward with his wife and mate Charlotte.

"Thanks," Bryon said giving his Uncle Peter a hug and then giving his Aunt Charlotte a hug and a kiss on the cheek.

"Yeah, thanks, I hope we can get to know each other better soon," Scott said then added, "Bryon talks about you all the time and I'm glad I was finally able to meet you."

"Sure you can come and visit Charlotte and me sometime," Peter agreed.

"That should be fun," Charlotte agreed. "I hope you and Bryon can come and visit sometime in the very near future, just make sure you call first as a lot of the time Peter and I aren't home and are traveling as we really don't get to see enough of him."

"We'd love to visit, just as soon as Scott is able to leave the house that is as dad and I haven't even begun teaching him how to hunt in a big city yet," Bryon said as he gave Scott's hand a squeeze.

"I hope that will be soon as by the way you describe it hunting sounds like a blast," Scott said with a disarming smile that caused Bryon's mouth to go dry and he immediately wanted to take Scott up bed for their wedding night even though they had been fucking like crazy ever since Scott was turned into a vampire just four months ago.

"I'm afraid it's going to be at least another 6 to 8 months," Bryon told Scott which caused him to sigh in regret.

"You mean your only four months old?" asked Peter in surprise. "With the way you're behaving I expected you to be at least a couple of years."

"He hasn't behaved like a typical newborn from the first at least according to dad," Bryon said. "Dad believes it's because he knew about a month before he was changed and therefore he had time to absorb the idea that he was going to be turned into something that wasn't supposed to be more then a legend."

"That might've done it," Peter agreed. "Most vampires are changed without knowing what's happening to them until after they've already been through the pain of the transformation and then it just takes time for the mental processes to sort everything out as they go from using such a small part of their brains to using 100%, which is what causes a newborn to react on instinct in the first place."

"It probably helps that I'm originally from Scotland," Scott said breaking into the conversation, "if you can't already tell from my accent. There are plenty of legends of vampires in my homeland and just like any other teenager I read a lot of them. At the time I might not have believed them, but at least they gave me a basis or a foundation on which to build on."

"That probably would've helped," Charlotte agreed, "or at least given you more of an idea of what was happening to you then never having read about vampires at all. It is true that a lot of the legends and stories are inaccurate, but some of it is correct at least, even if we don't sleep in coffins or turn into bats like some of the legends claim."

Everybody laughed at that because that was what they always showed in the movies whenever Hollywood did one about vampires.

"I believe we're about ready for the reception," Bryon said finally, "and as much as I have enjoyed this conversation I'm thirsty as I have not fed for the last couple of weeks, so that I would be hungry for the humans that have been kidnapped from all around the area and kept as prisoners until now. Also Scott has also been draining only one human instead of the four he usually drains every time he feeds. We thought that was better since he is still a newborn after all and has yet to learn control. We didn't want him to run into town and drain some unsuspecting human dry in front of witnesses you know so he has still been eating even if it isn't as much as he is used too."

"A wise precaution," Charlotte approved. "It means he is still getting fresh blood and yet will still be hungry so that he can eat at the reception."

"Which is a great idea, a kind of vampires version of a wedding reception, except instead of food like a human would have we have humans to feed off of. It's kind of a blood reception?" asked Peter with a certain delighted gleam in his eyes.

"Yep, it was Trevor's idea," Bryon said with a wink. "But Scott also pointed out that we would have to put some nonperishable food, and buckets of water down with them or risk them dying of starvation or thirst before we could drain them dry."

"Most of them also needed to be hosed down as well as they stunk to put it politely and I wasn't about to try to sink my teeth into something that stunk so bad I would have had to hold my breath at the same time," Scott said shaking his head. "The family didn't kidnap anybody that would be missed when they went into town as they are mostly bums or criminals taken over a three month period."

"In fact my brothers made sure all the humans were thoroughly clean just a couple of days ago so that we could enjoy our feast without having to worry about the stink of unwashed human bodies," Bryon added.

"I bet the humans didn't enjoy the way they were washed and scrubbed thoroughly," Charlotte commented with a laugh.

"They really didn't as it was a rather rough scrubbing and delousing that must have removed at least three layers of their skin," Scott admitted with a smirk, "but you know that's just too bad. For the first time in years they are absolutely sparkling clean even if they aren't going to live long enough to enjoy their new state."

"Normally I know we wouldn't bother to make sure the humans were clean at all, but since we had to have so many of them in order to feed 35 vampires, in such a closed space, for such a long time it was decided that it was prudent to do it this one time. Besides normally we don't bring humans home as we just go out and hunt them down," Bryon said, "but since Scott is still a newborn and he can't do that yet this was decided upon as being better in this case."

"I suppose we could have waited to get married until I was able to hunt on my own," Scott said with a shrug, "but you know this way is better as we can all be together just like a big family meal if we were human."

"Except that all of us will have to take whatever humans we choose out of sight others so that we can enjoy our meals in peace as we vampires tend to be very protective of our meals," Peter said.

"Yes, I suppose so," Scott agreed. "That's what I've been told anyway but since Bryon and I have always fed together I haven't witnessed it for myself."

"With mates it's different," Charlotte said.

"Yes, I know," Scott said with a nod. "Or at least that's what I've been told."

"You seem to have taken to the life of a vampire pretty easily," Charlotte, commented.

"I suppose so," Scott replied with a shrug, "it has a lot to do with what I said earlier and if I had just been turned into a vampire without knowing what was happening then I'm sure I would be reacting totally differently."

"Not to change the subject but I'm thirsty," Bryon said, "and I'm sure Scotty is too so let's go eat as they can't start without us."

"I am, very thirsty actually," Scott admitted his eyes as black as pitch.

"So let's go eat," Peter said as he saw how dark both Bryon's and Scott's eyes were.

The other three nodded and headed where the other's had lined up all the humans so that Bryon and Scott could have first pick since it was their wedding reception after all.

~~~Bryon and Scott~~~

"Well it's about time you two got here," called Meredith.

Bryon just rolled his eyes at his sister and then he and Scott started walking along the very long line of humans examining them as if they were merchandise and in a way they were as really it was just like a human examining their fruits or vegetables looking for bruises or soft spots. Normally Bryon didn't care what his meals looked like or what kind of condition they were in healthwise as he just fed off criminals, although he did prefer them to be relatively healthy and not skin and bones as that meant they had more blood, but since this was his and Scott's wedding he was taking a little more time to pick his selection more carefully than he normally did.

Finally, though he and Scott made their selection and took 10 humans out of the line of about 150 or so.

The ten chosen were of course, all male as that was what he and Scott preferred and they were also in the best of health, having plenty of flesh on their bodies which meant that they weren't half-starved, compared to the rest of the humans that had been kidnapped in order to be drained.

Normally there was no way that Bryon or Scott could have drained so many, as three apiece usually satisfied them but since they had been starving themselves in preparation for this day they were very, very thirsty.

As for the humans they looked resigned to their fate as none of their begging and pleading that they had been doing since they had been kidnapped had done them a bit of good and trying to escape hadn't done them any good either as all the vampires in the house were prepared for such attempts and therefore it was nearly impossible. The humans had still tried though, repeatedly and whoever had had been made an example of eventually all the humans had given up.

Bryon and Scott herded the ten humans away from the others and once they were out of the sight the other's got their choice of humans of which there were plenty to choose from.

Bryon was sure that there would be some left over that he and Scott could feed on just like they had for the last four months since Scott had been turned.

"Please! Please! Spare me!" pleaded one of the men who looked to be around 40 or so. "I'm too young to die!"

Both Bryon and Scott rolled their eyes and Scott said, "Why don't we put him out of his misery? His blubbering and pleading is getting on my nerves."

"Fine with me," Bryon replied his mouth figuratively beginning to water as the scent of all ten humans wafted towards him. As the scent of the humans blood wafted under his nose Bryon had a hard time controlling himself from going on a feeding frenzy as all the humans smelled absolutely delectable. "Quit blubbering and accept your fate like a grown man instead of acting like a baby," Bryon growled at the man in irritation sending his a strong dose of pain with his gift that sent the man to ground curled up in a ball screaming in pain all in the matter of just one second. "Even if we were inclined to let you go free we couldn't not with your knowledge of what we are."

"Which we aren't," Scott said looking at the whimpering man dispassionately not caring in the least that he was laying on the ground whimpering and screaming in severe pain knowing exactly what Bryon was thinking. "Inclined to let you go free that is."

"No we're not we're both very thirsty so let's get to it before I tear all of them apart without really drinking because my throat is burning so bad."

"Absolutely," Scott agreed, "as my throat is burning just as bad as yours."

Bryon stopped sending him pain and pulled the man to his feet with absolutely no trouble at all as the man felt as light as a feather and not as if he weighed almost 200 pounds. Bryon and Scott then held hands as the each bit down on opposite sides of the guy that had been whining, neck and starting draining him of his life essence. You might wonder why the other humans were just standing around waiting to be killed and the answer would be that each one was in heavy shackles with a ball and chain just like they had used to use on prisoners until sometime in the 1950s, so even if the humans tried to get away they wouldn't be able to get very far before they were caught as all they could do was shuffle slowly forward and not run even if Bryon or Scott were distracted enough to let that happen in the first place. Where Jasper had managed to get 150 pairs of the heavy shackles with the ball and chain Bryon didn't have a clue as they had mostly stopped being used on prisoners over a 150 years ago.

Scott and Bryon each selected two different men this time after they had finished the man they had mutually nicknamed the whiner, but still held hands as they drained their different meals. Once they were done with those two they selected another two and started draining those men as well. Pretty soon there were only two men left and it was decided silently that they would share both as they really enjoyed sharing their meals with each other even they both knew it was not normal for vampire kind, however they were mates and they could share without getting their heads nearly bitten off for invading another vampire's territory when they were feeding.

After they finished draining the last of the human they selected they looked at each other and immediately noticed that instead of their eyes being black because they were so hungry they were a brilliant crimson red.

"Are you full?" asked Bryon.

"Very," Scott replied with a wicked grin patting his stomach as he dropped the corpse of the man he was holding.

"Good we'd better get back to the others and tell them we're done, they'll clean up this mess."

"Shouldn't we do that?" asked Scott noticing that he had blood all over his tuxedo as he had not yet learned how to not get blood on him whenever he fed. Ah well he could always buy another if he had to.

"Nah," Bryon said taken Scott's hand in his. "Mom has already informed me that some of my brothers will take care of them. She said that we didn't have cleanup duty today since we just got married."

"That was very nice of your mom," Scott said.

"You know you could call her mom too," Bryon commented. "Lindsey and Gerik certainly do with her permission of course."

Scott looked startled at Bryon's words, and then when he thought about it he realized he hardly ever called her Bella either and usually when he was speaking about her at all he just referred to her as Bryon's mom and the same went for Jasper as well.

"You hardly even refer to her or dad by their given names, even though they've both given you permission to" Bryon said in an uncanny echo of Scott own thoughts. "You usually just refer to them as my parents and believe me they've noticed."

"I hadn't realized until you mentioned it that I was doing that," Scott said truthfully, "but you're right I usually do just refer to them as your mom and dad and not by their given names. I'll have to change that now that I realize what I was doing as your parents have done so much for me, certainly more than my parents ever did."

Bryon growled a little when Scott mentioned his parents as he was still pretty pissed off at the way they had treated their own flesh and blood.

"You know what's ironic, though?" Scott asked.

"What's that?" asked Bryon with a raised eyebrow.

"Well, the fact that my parents are human and you would think that they had an ounce of human compassion and yet your parents are vampires and they seem to have more compassion than anybody I have ever met and this is despite the fact that they drink human blood," Scott said.

"They have compassion when they can afford to have compassion," Bryon said although he saw Scott's point.

"Yes, I know and I know that some situations you can't afford compassion but when they can afford to they show more compassion then anyone else I've ever met including for a total stranger like me."

"You're not a stranger," Bryon protested vehemently.

"Not now, no, but when they first met me they didn't know the first thing about me except that I was your mate," Scott replied.

"Alright, you have a point," Bryon conceded as they finally entered the house.

~~~~Bryon and Scott~~~

Six months later

"You ready to learn how to hunt?" asked Bryon and Scott nodded eagerly.

"I've been looking forward to it," Scott replied looking eager to be gone. "I'm getting a little claustrophobic being stuck in the house all the time no matter how large it is. I'm ready to get out and do things. Actually I kind of felt like a bit of a prisoner even if I knew it was necessary until after my newborn year was over."

"Well, technically, your newborn year isn't over for another two months," Bryon pointed out reasonably.

"Yes I know, but dad thought I was ready, and since he is the expert…" Scott said. After the conversation Scott had had with Bryon on their wedding day he had begin referring to both Jasper and Bella as mom and dad and it just seemed like he had always called them that for it came out so easily and sounded so natural.

Jasper and Bella had been a little startled at first understandably but then extremely pleased as that was the way that all their children referred to them including Gerik and Lindsay who were only Whitlocks because they were mated to two of Jasper and Bella's children. Scott on the other hand was truly a Whitlock if only because he had Bryon's venom running in his veins and since Bryon had been born a Whitlock that made Scott one as well while Lindsey and Gerik had already been vampires when they joined the family.

"Ready to go?" asked Jasper as a he came into where Bryon and Scott were standing at the front door waiting on him.

"You bet!" Scott said enthusiastically. "The sooner I learn how to control my bloodlust around humans the sooner Bryon and I can get out and do things together and not just stay around the house and grounds."

"Feeling a little claustrophobic?" asked Jasper rhetorically even though he already knew the answer. "

Scott looked guilty. "It's not that I don't appreciate your hospitality, but staying in one place for so many months when I'm used to being so active is driving me crazy. I've put up with it because I knew I didn't have a choice and Bryon is great at keeping me distracted, but I used to be very active as a human as I wasn't one to just sit around doing nothing. I'm afraid I'm starting to feel a little confined, no matter how huge this place is."

Jasper nodded as he understood the feeling of being confined all to well. "I'm not offended," Jasper assured his son putting a hand on his shoulder. "I know what feeling like a prisoner all to well. Even if you aren't really confined just knowing that you can't leave the house and grounds is enough to make you feel like that."

"That's it exactly," Scott agreed relieved that Jasper understood and didn't think of him as ungrateful. "The sooner I learn how to be around humans without wanting to massacre them the sooner Bryon and I can go on a belated honeymoon and get some much needed time alone."

Bryon looked down at his feet and radiated embarrassment at Scott's words to his father, but Scott refused to be embarrassed at what happened between him and Bryon was perfectly natural and it wasn't as if the whole family didn't know what they did anyway.

"Let's get started then," said Jasper his lips twitching in amusement heading out to one of the cars which was a SUV and therefore had plenty of room for all three men's fairly long legs. Jasper got into the driver's seat while Scott and Bryon got into the back and sat in the two captains chairs side by side with a drink holder between them. Scott and Bryon reached out almost at the same time and clasped hands, which amused Jasper who saw the actions through the rearview mirror, although he was careful not to show it. The action also brought a wave of nostalgia as he remembered how he and Bella were always more comfortable touching in some way for the first fifteen, almost sixteen years of their mating and he knew that it would be sometime before Scott and Bryon didn't have to do the same in order to be comfortable, although how long he didn't know for sure although he suspected it would probably take at least as long as his and Bella's bond had taken to finalize considering how strong their bond had been when Scott was human. Why some bonds didn't take nearly as long to finalize and others two of three times as long Jasper didn't have a clue and just knew that it was part of the vampire race.

"We are approaching the city," Jasper said aware that Bryon and Scott were talking quietly enough that he couldn't actually understand the words although he did understand Bryon's soothing tone and feel Scott's nervousness.

Scott had every reason to be nervous, Jasper knew as this little experiment could go horribly wrong. Scott had done well resisting his thirst for a few minutes as he and Bryon bantered back and forth about choosing which specific human man they wanted to feed off of for the last few months, but the ultimate test would be Scott being able to be around humans for hours or days at a time without giving in to the urge to murder a whole room of them and in order to accomplish that he would have to learn to control the demon or the vampire part of him and firmly lock it away unless he wanted to let it out.

That could be very difficult or it could be easy depending on how difficult, unruly and stubborn that part of Scott wanted to be and Jasper couldn't precisely predict what would happen since every new vampire was different just like all humans were different.

Scott gulped and then seemed to relax a little as Bryon leaned over and whispered something very softly in his ear. Bryon whispered something else and Scott nodded his spine stiffening in determination.

Whatever Bryon had told Scott seemed to be working for he was not only looking very determined his emotions were radiating it, very strongly.

Jasper used the automatic control on his door to turn down all the windows and then told Scott to take a deep breath.

"Come on Scott, you can do it, I know you can. Just think of the places we can go once you can control your bloodlust," Bryon encouraged. "We could travel anywhere in the world and discover ancient wonders or we can go to my cottage, the one I told you about and stay there for months or years if we so please."

Scott started radiating determination even more strongly than before and took a deep breathe smelling all the scents of the city, cooking food, garbage, smog and many other scents both pleasant and unpleasant. The strongest smell, however, a smell that was so strong that it overpowered everything else was the scent of human blood.  
There were hundreds of humans all around and all Scott wanted to do was leap out of the SUV and attack not caring if he revealed the vampire race to the world which is what would happen if you took such a rash action.

However much more important in his opinion was the fact that Bryon had threatened not to fuck him at all until he could get his bloodlust under control and Scott wasn't about to go without sex for a month or however long it took. To mated couples—especially newly mated—not having sex was a powerful threat as well as a strong incentive to get his bloodlust under control.

"How are you doing?" Jasper asked Scott after a few minutes of tense silence where Jasper was ready to spring into action if he felt the slightest emotion from Scott where he was about to break the SUV door off and leap out to attack all the humans that were with in just a few feet of him with only the very breakable door of the car preventing him and that could be gotten rid of very easily by a vampire in a state of feeding frenzy.

"I'm fine," Scott said the words coming out sounding kind of choked, but still barely understandable with Scott's very thick accent, which tended to get thicker the more tense or nervous he was. His hands were clutching the armrests of the seat so hard that he actually started to crack the plastic and leave finger indents as well.

Scott's accent was one thing they were going to have to work on until it was barely noticeable, which Jasper knew was possible as he had used to have a very thick southern one since he had been born and raised in Texas. His had been trained away and with a little work Scott could get rid of his as well unless he wanted it to come out. That could wait for awhile though as they had more important things to worry about at the moment.

"I'm managing to keep control so far," Scott added after a moment. "My demon definitely wants to get out and murder all those humans and doesn't care who sees so long as he gets blood, but I am bound and determined to get control of my bloodlust so that Bryon and I can do things and not have to stick around the house all the time."

"Being stubborn that's good," Jasper told Scott feeling proud. "The more stubborn you are and the more willpower you have the easier it is to control your demon as I have learned from experience. You must imagine bars of a cage using your stubbornness and strong will as the thicker the bars are the harder it is for your demon to escape and cause havoc. You can't afford to be wishy-washy or your demon will take control and do things that you don't want him to do. You must think of your demon like a child that doesn't know what is good for it and will not listen to orders unless he wants to. Once you have had a few years in this life your demon child will realize that revealing itself to the human race is not a good thing, but until then you're going to have to struggle for control and be constantly vigilant to make sure that part of you doesn't escape, whenever you are around a lot of humans."

Bryon squeezed Scott's hand encouragingly and didn't have to say anything for Scott to know that his mate was silently cheering him on for Bryon didn't want to be forced to withhold sex because as new mates, especially ones whose bond had yet to be finalized sex was absolutely essential and it would be nearly impossible for Bryon to keep his hands to himself, although he was stubborn enough to do it. Their bond had been finalized true, but it was still less then a year old and until he had been a vampire at least five years, if not more he and Bryon were going to be more comfortable touching in someway and to not be allowed to do that Scott had a feeling it would be extraordinarily painful for both of them.

Also Scott himself could not go very long without fucking his mate as he had never had such strong orgasms or excellent sex in all his life or at least not that he could remember anyway and he was now addicted.

"You're doing very well," Jasper encouraged as he feel Scott struggle internally trying to build the bars of a mental cage to imprison his bloodthirsty demon.

The SUV was completely silent except for the little sounds that were coming from outside the honk of car horns, the sound of hundred of human voices, the noise of dozens of radios from all the cars around them.

More importantly was the sound of hundreds of beating human hearts which pumped blood through a human's body and probably wouldn't be noticeable to a regular human but to three vampires it was like waving a red cloth in front of whole herd of bulls.

"You doing okay?" Bryon asked softly after a few minutes.

"So far," Scott replied taking his hand off the armrest where he was gripping them so tightly he had almost completely ripped one armrest off and it was only still hanging by a thin margin. Scott flexed his fingers, in a completely human gesture to make sure his fingers worked as they should even though there was no need, then reached over and raised Bryon's hand to his lips and kissing the back very gently, before turning it over and kissing the middle of Bryon's palm. This was Scott's way of letting Bryon know that he was still struggling with his monster but doing okay.

Bryon almost melted at the tenderness Scott's action and and again internally thanked whoever had put Scott in his path as he was happier than he had ever been in his very long life. Scott was everything he could possibly want in a mate, loving, passionate, tender, funny, gentle, sweet, occasionally romantic and yet also as stubborn as a mule and hard to deal with sometimes, but then so was he and Bryon couldn't expect Scott to be tractable all the time, without a will of his own. In fact if truth be known he wouldn't want someone that was tractable all the time without seeming to have any kind of spirit at all and just went along with whatever he wanted to do without arguing or offering suggestions as that would not make him happy at all. It would be extremely boring to be agreed with all the time as that would mean it would be no spark to their relationship and Bryon was sure that the sex would be just as boring if Scott didn't have any fire or passion to him, which he wouldn't want at all, so Bryon was extremely glad that Scott had such passion to him as it made the relationship much better that it would otherwise be.

"I think that that is enough for one day," Jasper finally declared half an hour later. "We'll go out again tomorrow, and stay out for an hour instead of half. If that goes well we'll try two hours, then three. If three hours goes well we'll try taking in a late night movie where it isn't very crowded and after that we'll see."

Scott visibly gulped nervously but nodded resolutely seeming determined to continue with his testing so that he and Bryon could get out an do things together. Jasper sent Scott his feelings of pride in all that he had accomplished in just his few short months into this life. Scott was determined and stubborn and that was good as it might mean it was slightly easier for him to get control of his bloodlust. Jasper had learned in the past that the more stubborn and determined you were the easier that the vampire part of you would come to heel like a dog. If you were all wishy-washy then that part of you would take over very easily and do what it wanted instead of what it should. Really it was all about a battle of wills, strong unmovable object meeting a rock and a hard place was probably the best example that he could come up with about what that inner part of a vampire was like. Really it was a struggle between your human side and what you became when you were turned into a vampire—a monster.

Scott visibly relaxed as Jasper drove out of the city and on to the road that would lead back to the estate that he and Bella owned. The reason that Scott relaxed was that this road out of the city wasn't very populated by cars at this time of day and also because Jasper had put the windows back up and so it was a little easier for Scott to relax and not have to struggle so much to maintain his control.

"You did very well for your first time out in the city with hundreds of people all around," Jasper told Scott truthfully.

"Thanks," Scott replied gratefully. "I do need to feed, though as soon as we arrive back home as I am quite thirsty."

"You're welcome, but I give credit where credit is due as he definitely is in this case. I know very well how much of a struggle it is to control your bloodlust, especially as a new vampire as not only did I go through the same struggle myself even if it was in a totally different time, I have also trained hundreds if not thousands of newborns in my time and each one is different, just like all humans are different. Each of us has different strengths and weaknesses and that's why all the struggles of the individual vampire are different from all the others because none of us are the same."

"So in other words some vampires have it easier than others," Scott said distilling Jasper's little speech into just a few words.

"Precisely," Jasper agreed with a smile and wink at Scott. "Also I'm not really surprised that you are thirsty because you used a lot of energy subduing your inner vampire to get him to obey your will and and just like humans you need to refuel when you do use a lot of energy. Really the only difference is the fact that we drink blood while humans eat food, but both serve the same purpose."

Scott nodded. "That makes sense," he agreed. "You sure do make the vampire world easier to understand."

"That comes from my centuries of experience," Jasper told Scott with another wink. "I'm just happy I have someone to pass my experiences onto as for a long time I had no one to share my knowledge with."

"Not until you met mom anyway," Bryon said having relaxed now that they were out of the city where it was unlikely Scott's inner vampire would get out of control with so few humans around.

"Yes, your mother changed my life and for the better," Jasper said his expression turning positively goofy.

Bryon and Scott looked at Jasper's goofy expression and tried not to laugh as usually he was calm and controlled and while he did smile quite often his expressions were never so completely goofy as the one on his face at the moment not that either young man could blame him for it as it was apparent to them at least that Bella was his entire world and would always come first. It wasn't that Jasper didn't love his family as neither Bryon or Scott doubted that, but although it would hurt him deeply to lose any of his children it would kill him quite literally to lose Bella.

~~~Bryon and Scott~~~

One year later

"Ready to go?" asked Bryon as he zipped shut his duffle bag. He was sure he and Scott would acquire much more luggage in their travels, but for now just a couple of duffle bags and one small suitcase apiece would do.

"You bet," Scott said enthusiastically. "You know very well I've been wanting to get out of this house, even if I enjoy spending with mom, dad and your siblings and dad finally said I was ready to go out on my own without supervision, although he did warn me I would have to be careful for the next few years. Well, I don't need to explain it to you since you were there when dad told me."

Scott had excellent control of his bloodlust for one so young at least according to Jasper, because as a final test Jasper had brought a dozen bleeding humans into the house and right past Scott leading them to the cellar where such prisoners were kept. Scott had visibly shuddered and it was clear that he was struggling to not attack the dozen humans, who were leaking blood from various types of wounds but he managed to stay where he was and not move from his spot despite the provocation.

After that Jasper had released him from staying around the house all the time saying that if Scott could resist a dozen humans leaking blood then he could resist just about anything. He would still have to be cautious for a few years, Jasper had warned, but soon he be able to be around humans more easily. That had been two months ago and the only reason Scott and Bryon hadn't yet left was because they had been shopping to extend Scott's wardrobe as he had very few clothes for he had torn a lot of them to shreds just learning to control his new vampire strength. Luckily Bella had listened and just bought Scott jeans and t-shirts and not anything ultraexpensive which was good as Scott would have been more upset about destroying nicer clothes the he was about the jeans and t-shirts he had wrecked without half trying.

"Let's get going then," Bryon said slinging his duffel bag over his shoulder and holding his small suitcase by the handle rolling it out the door Scott doing the same.

When they got downstairs the whole family that was there were all waiting to wish them goodbye.

"You'll keep in touch?" asked Bella looking a little sad that Bryon and Scott were leaving, but she also knew that they needed their space. Besides Bella was always sad when one of her children left after an extended visit and everyone knew that she would be fine after a few days.

"Of course, mom," Bryon assured Bella giving her a kiss on the cheek. "We'll call at least once every couple of weeks."

"And we'll be sure to send you lots of postcards and gifts," Scott added also giving Bella kiss on the cheek.

"You don't have to send gifts," Bella protested.

"We want to," Scott said. "Besides you ought to be happy because that means we are thinking about you while we're gone."

Melodie snorted at that and said, "I very much doubt that either one of you will be thinking about your family that you left behind while you're out gallivanting around the world. I'm sure that you too will be having so much fun that none of us will even cross your minds at all."

"Like you don't go off on your own a lot," Bryon told her his tone one of mild reproach. "You need some time away occasionally to you know, so you have no right to criticize me for doing the same."

Melodie didn't have anything to say to that and if she had it just would've been a lie so she remained silent because she did travel a lot even if it was by herself.

"You'll call if you get into any situation you can't handle," Jasper almost ordered still vaguely worried about Scott as he was only a little bit over a year old after all.

"Of course, dad," Scott promised giving Jasper a hug in farewell. "I know I still need to be cautious whenever I am around a lot of humans since you have reminded me more than once that I'm still very young for a vampire."

"Good," Jasper said pleased, "so long as you understand that. We'll see you when you get back even if that's five years from now."

"What about 20 or 30?" asked Bryon teasingly.

"Or 20 or 30," Jasper said agreeably, "although I would appreciate if you would come and visit your mother at least every once in awhile."

"Don't worry we'll come back for Christmas at least and celebrate with the family before we go off on our own again," Bryon promised.

"Good," said Jasper knowing that would make Bella happy. "You better get going."

"Why? It isn't like Scott and I are going to miss our flight since I own the plane," Bryon said.

"Because if you don't go soon Bella's going to try to convince you to stay," Jasper said looking at his wife. "She's never liked it when any of their children go off on their own and would prefer to have all of you around all the time, but also knows that you have lives of your own. Just come visit frequently is all I ask."

"We will," Bryon promised as he and Scott headed out the door their luggage already packed in the car thanks to the help of their siblings.

Scott got in the driver's seat as he had learned how to drive again without wrecking the car or leaving dents in the steering column while Bryon got into the passenger seat.

"And we're on our way!" Bryon exclaimed as Scott started the engine and headed down the very long driveway.

"Yes, I can't wait!" Scott said as he drove through the gates that led to the estate. "Free! Free as a bird!"

Bryon laughed at Scott's words although he could definitely understand the sentiment as Scott had been unable to go anywhere for over a year until he had gotten control of his bloodlust.

"Yes free! Now let's go explore the world!"

"Spain here we come!" Scott exclaimed as he drove fast down the road. It had been decided that Spain would be there first destination and then they'd go elsewhere whenever they felt like moving on.

~~~Bryon and Scott~~~

"So where do you want to go first?" Bryon asked Scott.

The two of them had decided that renting a house was a better option than staying in a hotel if only because of the privacy where nobody would question their coming and goings or for people to look down on them just because they were two men, which was bound to happen at some point since there was still a lot of prejudice in the world and always would be. Also this way there was nobody to be curious or suspicious like when they didn't get home until dawn or even remained gone for days on end.

"Could we go hunting first before we do anything else? I'm getting kind of thirsty."

"Sure," Bryon agreed immediately. "I know exactly where to go to as I've been to Madrid before, although it's been about 60 years. Make sure you tell me whenever you think it's time to go feed as you're still relatively new to this life and it is going to be awhile before you can go a week or two in between feedings like I can. I remember when I was just a couple years old and dad released me to go out on my own he warned me that I would need to feed fairly often, every three or four days was his estimate and the same will probably be true for you."

"Did you ever disobey dad and not hunt every three or four days?" asked Scott.

"No, not about things like that as dad knows his business when it comes to newborn vampires and what needs to be done. Did I disobey him about other things? Sure. The things I disobeyed him about were pretty minor though and I never disobeyed him when it came to the safety of the family as dad definitely would've been more than displeased about that as he does everything he can to make sure we are all safe and that no human discovers what we are."

"Why didn't you disobey him when it came to when to hunt?" asked Scott curiously.

"Because I remember when me and my siblings were very small dad sat us all down and explained to us that a hungry vampire was an out-of-control vampire. He gently explained to us that we must always feed when we started to feel thirsty as if we didn't we could attack humans in full view of witnesses and then the human would find out about us, which was a definite no, no."

"How old were you when he explained this to you?" asked Scott curiously.

"We were three months old, but even though we were only a few months old we looked like we were 5 and our brains were even further ahead of our bodies so we understood what dad was telling us."

"Why is a hungry vampire an out-of-control vampire?" asked Scott. "I don't believe anybody has ever explained that particular thing to me."

"Well, when a vampire is really really hungry, like if they haven't hunted in a long time for whatever the reason they'll be very, very thirsty and their throats will be burning like a whole forest is on fire," Bryon explained. "A vampire will do anything to put out that burning in their throats as that constant searing can drive you insane. After a vampire gets to a certain point they react on instinct, which is different for everyone and they don't care if they reveal themselves to the human race, so long as they quench that burning of their throats. When that happens it's a massacre and that out-of-control vampire will kill thousands of humans ripping them into tiny shreds not even really drinking their blood before they finally come out of it."

Scott shuddered at Bryon's description and had he now understood why Bryon had told him to tell him when he got thirsty so that that didn't happen especially in this day and age where it would certainly be noticed with all the cameras and also the population had grown by millions since Jasper had been born so even if a massacre wasn't caught on camera people were bound to see, probably a lot of people.

"I'll tell you when I start to get thirsty," Scott promised solemnly. "I definitely don't want that to happen to us."

"Good," Bryon said as he leaned over giving Scott a kiss on the lips running one hand up and down his back gently. "Let's get going then and start to explore the city after we go hunting of course."

"Do you speak Spanish?" asked Scott. "I've been meaning to ask you that, but I kept getting distracted."

"Yes I speak and write Spanish," Bryon replied, "as well as French, German, Russian, Greek, Arabic, Italian, Portuguese, Bengali, Japanese, and Dutch.

"You speak and write ten languages," Scott exclaimed in genuine astonishment.

"That isn't really very hard when you have a eidetic memory," Bryon said with a shrug. "I had a lot of time on my hands before I met you and mom and dad, taught all of us French, Italian and Spanish so I already knew three of them before I was even five years old. As for the rest I picked them up in my travels which isn't really very hard if you listen to the people or that was what I used to do before the invention of the CD player and language discs. Actually I used to read the whole dictionary at vampire speed as it gave me the words, but I had to actually listen to people speak it to be able to put it into sentences. Nowadays I simply pop in one of the language discs and listen to it and learn at least the basic language that way."

"CD players? CDs? What are they?" asked Scott unfamiliar with the terms.

"CD players aren't made anymore, but they were invented in the late 20th century and used until about 2140, when something else was invented to take their place," Bryon explained. "CD, short for compact discs were used to record music on, or books, among other things. The only problem with them though was that you had to be very careful not to scratch them on the bottom or they would stop working right and start kind of skipping or if the scratch was bad enough they would even eject from the player. Also they didn't really hold very much not compared to today's systems for listening to music and learning languages and things like that."

"Sounds complicated," Scott said his disdain for history evident.

"Not really as it was CD players were really very simple to work actually but the systems today are much better, but that's beside the point."

"Yes, we have much more important things to do," Scott agreed. "After I got myself a meal would you like to go dancing?"

"Sure, we haven't danced since the first night we met," Bryon replied looking nostalgic. "I think it is a fine idea. We'll go to one of those clubs uptown as I'm not about to go to a gay club in a poor part of town just because a lot of humans dislike gay people."

"And I agree," Scott said. "I'm gay and I'm proud of it, and I'm not going to hide what I am from the world just to make people happy. If they don't like it that's just too bad because I'm not going to hide it and if somebody is really nasty about it I'll just drain their blood and be done with it."

"People have a right to their opinions, but they don't have the right to force that opinion on other people," Bryon said as he took Scott hand in his and kissed his knuckles gently.

"But it will happen," Scott said. "If there's one thing I know and that is the human race is very opinionated, stubborn, and prejudiced and some people try to force you into their mold. Also some humans have a very narrow idea of what they consider acceptable behavior and will ostracize anyone that doesn't fit their narrow view point."

"Yes, I agree as I have experienced such things myself," Bryon said with nod. "I have come across people like that before and normally I just leave them alone so long as they leave me alone, but if they tried to tell me that being gay was wrong and kept bothering me to change my ways or I'd go to hell I simply made a meal off them and that was that."

"I don't blame you a bit," said Scott. "I would have done the same, if I had been a vampire at the time, as there is only so much I can take before I lose my temper. While I was still human I seem to remember punching this man in the nose who saw me pick up this guy. I got a long lecture about sin and that I needed to change my ways and pray for the forgiveness. After about ten minutes when he seemed in no hurry to wind down and me trying to interrupt his little lecture for all of it l finally lost my temper and punched him unconscious with a single punch."

"Whoah!" Bryon said impressed. "How did you knock him out with one punch?"

"Well, as you know I have a temper even if I'm usually pretty good at controlling it and when that guy—sorry don't remember his name, if I ever knew in the first place—started to lecture me about being gay was a sin and a lot of other things I don't really remember I completely lost it, especially since I was polite at first trying to get him to shut up."

"Did you try moving away?" asked Bryon curiously.

"Oh, yes and he just followed me," Scot said rolling his eyes as he remembered. "I wasn't able to go back to that particular bar again, to embarrassed more than for any other reason. Well, embarrassment and the fact that I didn't really want to run into that guy again. I remember that a lot of the crowd that had been watching actually cheered me. It turned out that that guy had a bit of a reputation and that I wasn't the first he had lectured, although I was the first that actually punched him, not to mention knocked him out with one punch."

"He deserved it," Bryon said seriously. "If he had minded his own business it wouldn't have happened and I can't really blame you for not going back to that particular bar again as I certainly wouldn't have after that if I had been human that is, but since I'm not and have never been human I would have handled the situation totally differently."

"You would have gotten him alone and drained him of his blood?" said Scott knowing very well how Bryon would handled the situation.

"Absolutely," Bryon agreed with a smirk and Scott grinned at him conspiratorially.

"From now on if that happens again I'll be perfectly happy to let you drain whoever it is dry, unless they annoy me to the point that I want to do the honors," Scott told Bryon.

"It will happen again, it is inevitable," Bryon said.

"You're more than likely right," Scott agreed.

"Oh it will as I've had it happen more than once in my over a century and a half of existence," Bryon said.

"Then when it does happen I'll let you do the honor of draining whoever it is dry and I'll do the same for you if somebody is lecturing you about the sins of being gay," Scott said.

Both men grinned conspiratorially at each other before they returned to finish unpacking in comfortable silence and then left the house they had rented hand-in-hand deciding to walk to their destination instead of taking the car they had rented as really it wasn't to far for one of their kind.

~~~Bryon and Scott~~~

Scott stalked towards his chosen prey, the two men unaware that death was coming swiftly upon them.

Bryon had led him to a bad section of the city where there were a lot of clubs and sex establishments among others and Scott had no trouble locating him a meal within just a few minutes.

Scott stalked his prey from the shadows as he went about his business and the guy had no idea that he was there at all as vampires were good at sneaking up on humans from the shadows

Finally the man who looked to be about 40 passed an alley and Scott reacted in just a moment dragging the man as deep as he would go into the darkness of the alley and had his teeth clamped down on the side of the man's neck all in a split second.

Here in Madrid Spain it was quite dark out as it was after 10 o'clock at night which made it easier for a vampire to hunt themselves up a meal.

"I'll get rid of the evidence," Bryon told Scott when he was sure that Scott had finished with his meal. "Why don't you go hunt you up another victim as I know you need it."

"I do, thanks," Scott said.

"You're welcome," Bryon told him with a wink and a kiss on the cheek, "and we'll go dancing after this just like you wanted."

"I'm looking forward to it," Scott said as he thought about dancing and holding Bryon close to him where there wasn't even half an inch of space between the two of them.

"So am I," Bryon said his eyes going dark as he thought about holding Scott in his arms all night. "I'm looking forward to holding you in my arms all night," he finally said out loud.

"So am I," Scott said rubbing his thumb up and down Bryon's cheek in a gesture of affection.

"Well let's finish getting you fed and then we can do that," Bryon said with a wink.

Scott looked out of the open end of the alley his eyes searching the darkness for another prospect to feed off of. He would prefer somebody who at least made his instincts go haywire as sometimes you could tell if a human was up to no good just by the way they acted.

While Scott was doing that Bryon searched the pockets of the dead man and produced a wallet from the back one. When Bryon opened the wallet he found about €5000 and gave a low whistle of appreciation.

None of his family was against theft at all, especially of those they fed off of as there was no point in letting a dead man's money go to waste. Normally they didn't find this much money on whomever they drained dry as usually at most they got a couple of hundred if that. 5000 though was enough to gamble with and increase both his and Scott's fortunes if they decided to do that.

"What did you find?" Scott inquired dragging the corpse of another man to lay beside the first.

"€5000 if you can believe it," Bryon said with a grin as he showed Scott the money he had found in the man's wallet.

Scott gave a low whistle of appreciation. "Either he was some kind of businessman that always carried a lot of cash around or he did a lot of gambling and won."

"He could've been a thief you know," Bryon said.

"He's to well dressed for that," Scott said looking down and examining the man's clothes. The corpse was dressed in a nice expensive business suit.

"So he could've been a very successful thief," Bryon argued as he searched the second corpse for the man's wallet.

Finally after a few more seconds Bryon located the second corpse's wallet and opened it to look in the billfold. "We weren't as lucky this time. There's only about €200 in here."

Scott snorted at that. "I think making €5,200 in one night isn't too shabby. Besides we both have plenty of money of our own."

"You're right," Bryon agreed as he rose to his feet. "Are you full?"

"Yes, pretty full," Scott said. "I might need a snack later, that you can share with me if you want, but right now I'm ready to go dancing."

"Then that is what we shall do," Bryon agreed as he took Scott's hand in his. "I know just the place to go to."

"Where?" asked Scott.

"It's a place I discovered when I was here about 10 years ago. They're still in operation, I checked."

"What's this place called?" asked Scott.

"The name of the place is El Después de Vida," Bryon replied.

Scott raised his eyebrows at the Spanish name but he supposed it made sense since they were in Madrid Spain. "What does that translate to?" asked Scott, curiously.

Bryon gave a snicker and replied, "The After Life."

Scott burst into laughter at that and if he had been human he would have been rolling around on the floor clutching his sides he was laughing so hard. "Now if that isn't an ironic name of a club for two vampires to go to, I don't know what is."

"I've always thought so," Bryon replied trying valiantly not to laugh, although his lips did twitch a few times as he tried to control himself.

"What kind of club, is it?" asked Scott as soon as he could get himself to quit laughing.

"It's a very upscale type of club," Bryon replied still looking highly amused. "They have dancing with a live band playing music and they even have private rooms for parties or private discussions and there are even rooms that you can rent by the hour if you meet someone and you want to go fuck each other. Even the waitresses are really high priced whores and will have sex with anybody who pays their fee. Their drinks though are very expensive not that that matters to us," Bryon replied.

"Sounds similar to the place I used to work at least from what I can remember," Scott replied.

"In some ways it is very similar," Bryon said, "and in others it is not."

"Which is to be expected," Scott said.

"One thing that is different is that all the employees speak Spanish, although they do had a couple at least that spoke at least a little English."

"That was 10 years ago and I'm sure they have at least a couple of employees that speak English fluently now as the owners would lose a lot of customers if the employees only spoke Spanish," Scott replied.

"Well, we'll soon see, although what you said makes sense." Bryon said as he took Scott hand in his and the two of them walked casually out of the alley looking around to make sure no one was watching them. "You're probably right though, because this place would have to keep up with the times or risk being closed. I know a lot of places over the years that I used to go to for a meal or just to relax and they closed because they couldn't or wouldn't modernize or because the humans that ran it retired and sold the business or simply because of poor management, so is this place is still in business 10 years later…"

"It must be pretty popular and very efficiently run," Scott finished Bryon's sentence.

"Exactly," Bryon replied not at all annoyed that Scott had finished his sentence for that just meant that his mate had already learned a great deal about how he thought in just the short amount of time that he had been a vampire and that was very good. "They probably have an accountant that keeps the books, instead of doing it themselves and more than likely they leave it up to the club manager to run things, while they stay in the background, which is how most business are run, unless it is some type of family business."

"So how far is this place from the house we rented?" asked Scott.

"Well it depends on traffic, so it should take anywhere from fifteen minutes to half an hour. I tried to rent us a place that was pretty close to a lot of the sites so we wouldn't have to go very far for some action or fun. Of course, we don't want to hunt too close to home as that might make people suspicious of us, but as for seeing the sites it is nice not to have to go to the trouble of going to far from our own front door."

"And if we wanted to see sites that were hours away?" asked Scott. "If it was somewhere that we couldn't get back in a single day? This is a very large city after all and the traffic is bound to be atrocious."

"Then we rent someplace close to wherever it was for a day or two or longer or stay in a hotel depending on the situation," Bryon replied. "It not like we don't have the money for it."

"True enough," Scott admitted thinking about all the money that the various Whitlocks had put into several accounts in his name in Switzerland, the Cayman Islands and also a regular bank account so he would always have money to spend. The account in question was never allowed to drop below a certain amount and would be filled from one of his other two accounts on a monthly basis. The Whitlocks had also given him a new ID, Social Security number, credit card, birth certificate, marriage license, everything he would need to blend into society. He was now known as Scott N. Whitlock instead of Scott Nathaniel Blackwood. His new name was only a slight change from his old one true, but with the original owner of the name Scott Nathaniel dead or at least disappeared Jasper, Bella, and Bryon had felt the change was necessary to stop anyone from realizing that Scott was still alive if they got too curious about his disappearance, even if that wasn't likely. It was just better for everyone the Whitlocks felt if the world at large continued to think that Scott had died even if there was never a body to be identified and since there were a lot of names that started with N. Scotty's middle name could be anything from Nathan to Norman. As for the name Scotty it happened to be a very common name, so unless somebody saw Scott who had actually known him there would be no way to identify him as the Scott Nathaniel Blackwood that had disappeared.

Also, it was worth mentioning that vampires around the world no longer had to worry about going out when it was sunny as the humans scientist had finally perfected their synthetic blood just last year and after Jasper and Bella had gotten ahold of the recipe they had brewed some up themselves and then tried it. They had instantly discovered that it tasted the same as human blood so long as it was fresh—although it was considerably thicker—which meant that it couldn't be more then a week or so old and also that it had to be kept chilled in order to maintain it's freshness. The one truly astonishing thing they had discovered however was that when they drank the synthetic blood at least once a week they could go out in the sun and not have their skin glimmer like a thousand tiny diamonds, so it was like having the best of both worlds as they could still hunt the humans that were their food source and yet drink the synthetic blood at the the same time so that they didn't sparkle when the sun hit their bare skin and could now explore places like Egypt which were always sunny and where it never rained, except during a certain months of the year, or was never cloudy, so long as they remembered to cover up their red eyes. Who could enjoy themselves if they felt like half drowned rats if they went to Egypt during the several months of the rainy season where it rained almost constantly? It wasn't that they could get sick, but who enjoy themselves if they were not only soaked to the skin, but had their clothes plastered to them and their hair dripping into their eyes or down their backs?

The Whitlock children had not been sure that they would want to drink this synthetic blood, but when they tried it at their parents urgings they found that it tasted okay, although not as good as the real thing of course and that it stopped their skin from sparkling in the sun all of them were instantly converted to using it at least once a week and hunting humans the rest of the time as there were a lot of places none of them had ever visited because it was rarely cloudy or rainy. Brazil for instance, or the Bahamas and many other places that none of them had ever been because of the weather. So now that the one and only barrier that prevented a vampire from moving certain places because of the sun—well it did if they wanted to get out in the daytime and not just at night—had been removed they could live about anywhere they chose or at least have a residence so that they could visit as often as they wanted.

"So now that I am full let's get going," said Scott eagerly because even as a human he had loved to dance and now that he was a vampire that had not changed, especially now that he had Bryon to dance with.

Bryon nodded and the two of them headed back to the house they had me to get the car so they could head to the club that had such an ironic name.

~~~Bryon and Scott~~~

Bryon and Scott entered El Después de Vida just twenty minutes later hand in hand and immediately headed for the bar to order drinks even though they didn't really need to, but they didn't want to stick out and so they did what everybody else would have done when they first entered a packed club.

"What can I get you?" asked the bartender in English with a thick Spanish accent.

"A whiskey for me," Bryon answered.

"And I'll have a beer," Scott added.

Once the bartender delivered their drinks all the ladies in the club that weren't attached to a man and even some that were swarmed around the two handsome young man even those who saw the matching wedding bands on their fingers.

"Would you like to dance?" asked one young lady with thick, straight red hair to Scott thinking he was very handsome and in fact he was the most handsome man she had ever seen.

Scott calmly displayed his wedding band and then said politely, "No thank you, I'm married."

"But that doesn't mean you can't dance with a gorgeous girl," the redheaded girl replied tossing her long hair flirtatiously. "Husbands do it all the time. I've danced with plenty of married men in my time here."

"Well I am going to be the exception as I happen to love my husband very much," Scott said not blinking at all when the young woman gasped in shock. The young woman with the red gold hair like fire had seen the matching wedding bands on both men, but hadn't connected the dots until Scott had spoken.

"Two men getting married should be illegal," the young woman said looking furious even though Scot hadn't been rude once despite having plenty of provocation.

"That's your opinion you're welcome to it," Bryon said finally speaking for the first time, "but you do not have a right to your push opinions on other people. Scotty has been perfectly polite to you and yet you keep pestering him even when he's made it more than clear that he isn't interested, so I suggest you go way. The two of us came here to have a good time not to be hassled by someone who doesn't know how to take no for an answer."

"Don't you trust your partner?" asked one lady with a smirk. The woman had dark brown hair and looked to be around the same age as the red haired one who was being such an annoyance.

"I do indeed," Bryon answered with such certainty in his voice that the two women who had spoken drew back a little in shock. "I don't trust you however, to not try to seduce him the minute I turn my back to go the bathroom or something. Notice I said the word 'try' as you won't succeed." Not that a vampire needed to pee, but then these women didn't know that... Bryon added in his thoughts.

Bryon and Scott moved away from the bar carrying their drinks with them, weaving their way through the crowd until they were sure they had lost the gaggle of women and went to stand in a dark corner out of sight of the woman who it was clear was still searching for who she thought of as her dream man.

"Why me?" asked Scott so softly that only another vampire like Bryon could have possibly have heard him over the noise of the music and of the hundreds of noisy humans who were obviously enjoying themselves immensely. "I simply came here to have a good time with you and dance the night away. I didn't come here to be asked by woman if I wanted to dance or for one of them to ask to buy me a drink or to be badgered when I tell them very politely no."

Bryon put an arm around Scott sympathetically. "We'll go somewhere else," Bryon suggested.

"No," Scott said squaring his shoulders his jaw set stubbornly. "I will not be chased out of this club by a bunch of overeager, overenthusiastic, insane women who it is clear are getting to the point that they are desperate to snag just about any man whether available or not so they can have children before their biological clocks run down. It doesn't appear to matter if that man is willing or not."

Bryon nodded quite proud of how Scott was handling the situation. He wouldn't have blamed Scott a bit if he had wanted to go somewhere else, where it was possible the same thing could happen to either one of them.

"Once we are out on the dance floor they might leave us alone," Bryon suggested trying to sound positive.

Scott snorted at the and said, "Haven't you ever heard of cutting in?"

"So neither one of us has to accept you know and we'll just make it clear we aren't available. If that doesn't work we'll leave and go somewhere else. It isn't like we need to be back at the hotel before dawn thanks to that new synthetic blood that some of the human scientists came up with. Dad and mom memorized the recipe as you know and then made sure we knew how to mix up our own."

"Yeah lucky for me, since that means we can go to places like Egypt, eventually and we wouldn't have been able to do that before the synthetic blood. I've always wanted to go to Africa and really explore the continent, maybe have our own version of a safari. I always dreamed of going on a safari when I was a boy and bagging me some big game, like an elephant or a tiger or a lion, but since we are vampires maybe we can find a way to set up a kind of human safari, where we chase down a dozen humans across the African savannah, although I'm not sure how practical that would be or if we could do it without getting caught or in trouble,"

"We shall see if we can make it work," Bryon said. "I won't promise because I don't want to have to disappoint you it if it isn't possible, but we'll see what we can do."

"Thanks, for not promising something you aren't sure you can keep," Scott said with a nod. "It might not be possible, but it would be kind of fun if it was."

"It would be," Bryon agreed with a wicked grin. "Back three or four hundred years ago it would've been doable without too much trouble, but with all the technology, not to mention the people today I just don't know if we can do something like that and not bring ourselves into the public eye."

"And vampires must stay out of the public eye at all cost," Scott said in a monotone as if he was quoting something, which he was as he had been told that quite often in the last couple of years by all the members of the Whitlock family at one time or another.

"And we both know the reason why even if both of us don't like it," Bryon added. "I'm not saying I don't agree with the fact that vampires need to remain as nonvisible as possible but it doesn't mean I'm happy with that."

Scott nodded. "I really can understand the need for secrecy though you and I don't have to like the reason for it."

"Well, let's not worry about that right now," Bryon urged. "Let's just go dance and enjoy ourselves and if those women keep being bothersome, we'll simply follow them home and make a meal off them. Even if we usually prefer men to feed off of we'll make an exception in their cases."

Scott nodded enthusiastically as he had absolutely so problem doing that. "That's a good idea. So let's go dance. It's why we came here for after all."

~~~Bryon and Scott~~~

"Can I cut in?" asked a woman who had not been part of the original gaggle of women who had caused Scott to be so upset.

"No you may not," Bryon said politely refusing to be rude since he didn't remember seeing this woman among the ones that had been bothering them earlier. "It should be obvious that we aren't interested in anything except each other considering we are dancing together."

"Oh, well a girl can hope," the woman sighed. "I was hoping that at least one of you liked both woman and men and would give me a chance."

"Sorry, but that is not possible," Scott said displaying his wedding band as Bryon did the same.

"Just my luck," the woman sighed in disappointment as she wasn't one to go after a married man, even if he was married to another man.

"Neither one of us has ever been interested in women," Bryon explained as he watched the woman move off after he had revealed that little piece of information.

"Well, at least she didn't annoy us to death like those women earlier," Scott said as he and Bryon continued to dance closely together. "She knows how to accept that we aren't interested for an answer."

"Unlike those half a dozen women from earlier who are glaring at us as if they have a right to either one of our bodies when they don't."

"I was aware," Scott said glancing contemptuously at the half a dozen women in question. "I just don't particularly care if they are glaring murderously at us, since I was polite to them even when they kept on bothering me. I have nothing to feel guilty for and can I help it if those human women can't take the very unsubtle hint I gave them? You would think that they would leave a married man alone, even if that man is married to his own gender as we never would have wed if we didn't love each other."

"I'm not letting them bother me either," Bryon said. "Those women are just going have to learn to deal with disappointment. Actually it is kind of strange that they're not avoiding us like most humans do I suppose they could be drunk or maybe it's just that they don't sense the predators in us as that has been known to happen as well."

"Well, we do try to act as human as possible," Scott pointed out, "and that might have something to do with it. I know we can't help the way we walk like predators or the way our skin is so white without any hint of color, but other then that and our red eyes we do look and act basically human. Sure we can be dangerous when we want to be, but since we go out among humans so much we do try to act as much like them as we can even if we are still odd in their eyes."

"A point," Bryon acknowledged. "I suppose it could have to do with the fact that my family does see humans as something other than a source of substance when most of our kind do not. We see them as people with faults, jobs and hobbies and therefore some of them must not be able to sense the predator in us and perhaps that makes us act more human then most of the rest of our kind."

"In other words they have even weaker senses then is normal for a human," Scott joked quietly talking directly into Bryon's ear, "and they can't even blame alcohol clouded senses for them since as far as I could tell none of those women were drunk enough to not be aware of the danger we represent even if we do go out of our way to act human. If we were trying to lure someone and had turned up the charm I could understand it, but all we were doing was sitting at the bar like two ordinary guys having drinks."

"I know it has a lot to do with the fact that as vampires we are inhumanly handsome with none of the imperfections that a human has," Bryon said also in Scott's ear. "A lot of humans, both men and women are attracted to that gorgeousness and some just don't know how to take no for an answer and keep it up until they get themselves killed."

"Some humans are just as gorgeous we are, even if they aren't quite up to our level," Scott commented. "They don't have any of the obvious imperfections that most humans have and they are just as sought after by the human population."

"Which some of them bask in and use it to get what they want," Bryon agreed, "just like vampires take advantage of their good looks in order to lure their prey or to just have sex with a human and then feed off them afterwards. Vampires have needs after all just like humans do and need to relieve their sexual tension just like anyone else. Of course, all the partners I had over the years before I met you were willing once I used my vampire charm on them, while others of our kind just force themselves on some human instead of taking the time to get them to agree willingly. It isn't like a mere human is a match for even the weakest of our kind."

Scott knew that was true as even the weakest vampire, one who had been in very poor physical shape when they had been changed, could overpower a mere human with no trouble.

"Let's change the subject," Scott suggested and Bryon nodded in agreement.

"So what do you want to do after this?" asked Bryon with a raised eyebrow.

"I don't really know as it is not like we have to be back to the house by dawn thanks to that new synthetic blood we were discussing earlier and we don't need to sleep," Scott said with a shrug. "We will just have to see. Actually it doesn't really matter to me what we do so long as we are together, although I would like to take in some of the sites while we are here and not spend all of our time in bed as pleasurable as that would be."

"At least we don't have to worry about some hotel staff getting suspicious if we didn't return to the hotel for days at a time since we rented our own place," Bryon commented, "although we could also use a shower and a change of clothes every so often even if we don't need to sleep. I know as vampires as we don't sweat thanks to the fact that we ca't drink water, but we can get stains on our clothes and dirt on our bodies even if we won't start to stink from sweat if we don't shower. Besides I want to make time for other activities if you get my meaning."

Scott nodded as that made sense. "So do I," Scott assured him as he kissed Bryon quite passionately right in the middle of the dance floor not in the least self-conscious about all the humans that were around them either dancing, or sitting at the bar or one of the tables having a drink.

"You do know those women just sent both of us glares that are even more intense then the ones we were getting?" asked Bryon asked with laughter in his voice as soon as they had broken the kiss. Those women were just going to have to get over it and learn that they couldn't always have what they wanted.

"I don't really care," Scott said airily looking over at the women with such intense loathing in his eyes that it actually made most of them shrink back a little. "They'll just have to learn not to try and steal somebody else's man especially when it's pretty obvious that he doesn't want anything to do with them at all. If I was still human now I would be very worried about my life as those women evidently haven't given up on having one of us, but since I am a vampire I'm not to worried about getting myself stabbed in the back quite literally."

"If any of them try they won't be alive for more then a couple of seconds afterwards and that is a promise," Bryon promised his voice deadly quiet with threat and menace growling ferociously looking ready to murder someone.

"Shh," Scott soothed Bryon running one hand up and down his mate's arm tenderly. "If they did try that it isn't as if it would harm me and as you say they wouldn't be alive very long afterwards," Scott said with an absolutely evil smirk not at all upset at the thought of those women's deaths for it was clear that they weren't giving up and he and Bryon had already agreed months ago what to do in these kind of situations.

There was no way he was going to have some kind of crisis of conscious about feeding off those women even if they weren't criminals or men, which was usually what he and Bryon preferred as the Scottish were known to be a bloodthirsty race and who still had clan wars occasionally even in this century, which was one reason that he and Bryon were such a good match as mates.

Bryon's expression returned to normal and he stopped growling softly, although there was still fire in his eyes that told Scott he was still pretty upset even though there was no reason to be.

"Why don't we head somewhere else?" asked Scott finally knowing Bryon would continue to dwell on those women until they left. "I've had enough dancing for right now and we can go do something else."

"If you're not ready to leave I'm willing to stay," Bryon said. "I'm sorry if I got a little bit out-of-control, but the vampire part of me is still very upset at what those women were trying to do. I know it has a lot of do with the fact that our mating bond is still really new and hasn't had a chance to mature yet. After a few years I'm sure I won't get upset so easily and neither will you."

"It's more than fine," Scott assured him, "but you don't have to worry about me going off with those women as they offend every instinct I've got and I've never been interested in the opposite sex in any case."

"I know that intellectually, but I'm afraid the vampire part of me still gets upset easily and will for sometime to come. Just the thought of somebody trying to take you from me makes me want to rend whoever it is into teeny, tiny little pieces. I mostly have it under control but occasionally…"

"I get the point," Scott said. "You don't need to explain to me since I'm a lot younger vampire wise then you are. I'm sure I will be the same way if I see somebody trying to get your attention and I know it will happen eventually."

"It will," Bryon said cheekily his usual cheerfulness coming back rapidly, "and I really can't wait to see how you act all jealous," he added with a grin.

Scott chuckled and the two of them continued to dance for awhile before deciding that it was time to go out and do other things.

~~~Bryon and Scott~~~

"So how long are we going to stay in Madrid?" asked Scott as he and Bryon entered one of the many museums that were throughout the city.

"It doesn't really matter, so we can stay for the next year if you really wanted to so long as we go home for Christmas like we promised we would."

"Well Christmas isn't for another three months and I think we should at least try to see other parts of Spain before then," Scott said slowly thinking it out. "We can always come back to Madrid sometime as we have centuries in order to do that. Why don't we stay another couple of weeks here and that will make a month all together and then we can go to Barcelona for a month and then maybe we can go to Toledo or some other city for the last month before we head home and spend the Christmas holiday with our family."

"Fine with me, but you know we don't have to stay in Spain as there's a lot of the world left to explore. We can go to Egypt for example like you mentioned just a couple of weeks ago as one of the places you wanted to visit."

"We can do that after Christmas," Scott said. "We should probably stay with your parents for at least a month or two before we're on our way again. I know your mother in particular misses you when you're not there."

"She misses you too, you know," Bryon pointed out.

"Alright so she misses both of us," Scott said agreeably not saying that he had gotten quite fond of Bella and Jasper as well, "which is why it would be a good idea to spend some time with them no matter what we do after that."

"I do miss playing chess with dad," Bryon admitted. "He's much better than I am, but then he's also centuries older than I am so that only makes sense."

"Have you ever beaten him?" asked Scott.

"Once or twice and they were hard won victories to," Bryon admitted.

"Do you think you could teach me how to play?" asked Scott.

"Sure I have a book of chess strategies at one of the houses that you can read that will help, although it would probably be better just to buy a new one since the copy I have is quite old. Also I would think it's a good idea for you to ask dad to teach you how to play as that will allow you to spend some time with him."

"Maybe I can get mom to teach me how to bake," Scott mused. "I know that she cooks occasionally even if she gives it to the nearest homeless shelter since it is something that she enjoys doing and since she can't eat…"

"It will also allow you to spend time with her," Bryon approved.

"Yeah," Scott said, "although I'll still be spending a majority of my time with you since I know that the bond is still new and I won't be able to be away from you for more than a few hours at a time for the next few years."

"And vice versa," Bryon said in agreement. "As for me I have never been one for cooking since I can't eat, although I do try to spend as much time with both my parents as I can when I'm home and my siblings to of course, the ones that are there anyway since we don't see each other to often."

"I believe that's one of the reasons you parents instituted the Christmas tradition," Scott suggested, "so that you can all get together at least once a year and spend at least a couple of weeks together before you all separate again."

"I never thought of it that way before," Bryon mused thoughtfully. "I suppose it never occurred to me though it's true that at least most of my brothers and sisters show up at Christmas time if not all of them."

"Why should you as most children don't questions about the traditions that they grew up with."

"Well, I didn't really grow up with it per se," Bryon said. "Mom and dad didn't institute it until after I and my siblings were already grown. I think it was their way of making sure they saw all of us at the same time at least once a year and also gave us time to spend with our siblings since we don't see each other to often."

"So you having Christmas where you all get together for what about 100 years?" asked Scott.

"Actually more like 140," Bryon corrected.

"So what you do when you all get together?" asked Scott curiously.

"Well my parents always go to some kind of exotic locale and rent a place big enough for all of us," Bryon said. "Last year it was Ireland which is right next door to Scotland as I'm sure you know. We couldn't afford to go anyplace too sunny for that was before we had the recipe for that new synthetic blood. This year though maybe they'll pick someplace like Florida where it is sunny a great deal of the time."

"Or somewhere in Africa?" Scott suggested with a certain excited gleam in his eyes.

"Maybe, who knows," Bryon said kissing Scott directly on the lips.

"So what else do you do for Christmas besides all get together?" asked Scott after the two of them had broken the kiss. "I'm assuming you exchange gifts?"

"Of course," Bryon agreed. "It wouldn't be Christmas if we didn't exchange gifts on Christmas Eve. As for what else we do we kidnap a whole lot of humans like 2 or 300 and we have our version of a feast over a two week period where we each drain one or two humans until they are all gone."

"Like we did for our wedding reception?" asked Scott immediately in understanding.

"Exactly," Bryon agreed.

"I've been meaning to ask you isn't so many people disappearing at one time noticed by the human population and why didn't we celebrate last year at Christmas time?" asked Scott.

"Not really as we always get the dregs of society, you know criminals, bums, people that won't be missed," Bryon explained. "Also we get them from different cities some that are hundreds of miles apart and even if the humans noticed there would be no way to trace it back to us as they would be considered unrelated crimes. As for why we didn't celebrate dad felt it was just better to skip that one year since we weren't sure how you were going to react to having so many other vampires around."

"The police aren't likely to notice if a couple hundred bums and criminals disappear and even if they do they're not likely to do anything about it since it means less work for them," Scott said. "And also you do have point about not being sure about how I was going to react to meeting the rest of your family and then we had our wedding three months later in February and didn't get upset or scared at having so many other vampires around, but your parents couldn't have known that beforehand..."

"Exactly," Bryon agreed. "If we do that though we have to dig latrines and leave food and water so that they don't die on us or lose so much weight that it isn't worth draining them. Personally I prefer to have my meals healthy and not just skin and bones as that means more blood for me and I don't have to go hunting again in order to fill up. Also my mother always cooks a lot during that time and not only gives some of the cakes, pies, stews and other things she cooks and bakes to the homeless shelters around the city but also to our temporary guests."

"Why does she bother?" asked Scott curiously with a raised eyebrow.

"Mom has often said that we might as well give them a few good meals before we drain them because it's Christmas and it is the season of giving instead of receiving. She has also said that there was no reason not to be generous with them for their last few days on this Earth, whether they are criminals or not."

"Your mom is one of the nicest and generous woman I have ever met," Scott said shaking his head. "I certainly would never bother to be so nice to my meals like she's doing not even on Christmas. If I wanted to do something like what your parents do I would leave buckets of water and maybe a few primitive latrines and that would be it."

"Well mom only does it on Christmas," Bryon said, "and not the rest of the year. Of course we don't keep prisoners the rest of the year either as we can't afford to do it to often as it would begin to be noticed and we can't have that."

"I bet it'll be a new family tradition to do it every time one of you finds your mate and gets married," Scott said.

"It might," Bryon agreed. "Trey and Lindsey never actually got married you know not in the human fashion like we did. They claim that being mated is like being married so their is no point in getting married like a human. They're right to, but they still could have gotten married and made mom happy as she was very disappointed that they didn't want to get married in the human fashion so that she could help plan it. I know we made her decade when we decided to do that."

"What about Gerik and Brianna?" asked Scott.

"They got married in Las Vegas and mom was quite upset with them at the time, for doing that and not having a wedding with the rest of the family present. Apparently they found this priest that didn't sense what they are, but then Las Vegas is loaded with with men of the cloth of all types and there was bound to be one that wasn't scared of them because they sensed that Gerik and Brianna were not quite human," Bryon said. "Personally I think they just didn't want the hassle of planning a wedding, although mom would have gladly taken over and planned it for them, but perhaps that was what they were secretly afraid of.

"Well, I'm still human enough to want to make it legal even if being mated in the vampire world is the same as getting married," Scott said, "so when you proposed it was like a dream come true for me."

"I've always been more like my mother in that respect and have always wanted a human type wedding whenever I found my mate so I'm glad you agreed to get married. Back when I was born over a century ago it wouldn't've been legal for two people of the same gender to get married so I'm glad I didn't find you until it was, although I was lonely for a lot of decades because of it."

"I've been meaning to ask what year it became legal for a same gender couple to get married," Scott said changing the subject deliberately as he put his arm around Bryon's shoulders in a gesture of comfort.

Bryon had to really think about it and then replied, "Well it didn't happen in just one particular year as it's been a long drawn out battle for over a hundred years. It really started sometime in the 1970s and continued on until at least 2068. By then at least most countries in the world had legalized same-sex marriages. I believe it was President Bill Clinton in the 90s that signed a bill to where it was illegal for the US government to recognize same-sex marriages for quite a long time after that, at least in the States. Most countries don't even call it a marriage they call it a partnership even if it amounts to the same thing."

Scott snorted at that. "That's just the government's way of putting a big red bow on it in order to make it easier in the eyes of the people. It's politics and nothing more than that when they call it a partnership instead of what it really is."

"You're right," Bryon agreed quietly laughing as it was very apparent that Scott was cynical about the intentions of the US Government, but he was also very cynical on certain subjects so he really didn't have a right to say anything out loud about Scott's views. Besides one could hardly blame him for being cynical about certain things.

"So what else do you do for Christmas besides open presents and have that Christmas feast that lasts two weeks," Scott asked changing the subject again.

"Well, we play outdoor games like capture the flag and volleyball—vampire style," Bryon said. "Also if it storms we also play baseball although we can't play that one unless it does."

"Why not?" asked Scott with a raised eyebrow.

"Because when you hit the baseball as hard as a vampire does it makes loud cracking sound and you really need a storm to cover that so that some human doesn't come and investigate. I know mom and dad's estate is out in the middle of nowhere but it's still too close to human civilization. You'll see what I mean the first time we play."

"I think I should watch the first time as I've never played baseball before," Scott said.

"It is very similar to the way humans play it at least rule wise. The family does use their vampire talents in the game, like we run at vampire speed to get to the bases and catch the ball before it goes out of bounds that type of thing, but since we all share speed, strength and the like it makes it basically even, even if some vampires are faster or stronger then others because of the kind of physical shape they were in as humans. Using extra talents though, like my and dad's empathic ability is illegal."

"Why?" asked Scott.

"Because most of us don't have any extra talents outside what is normal for a vampire that is," Bryon explained, "and so not using those extra talents levels the playing field, so that everyone has a chance to win."

"And your family actually plays by the rules?" asked Scott in astonishment.

"Yes, we do because we don't want either mom or dad mad at us, especially mom as she has multiple, subtle ways to show her disappointment that make you feel so bad that you feel guilty for weeks or even longer afterwards. Both my parents believe in fair play and therefore if you play fairly and you win fairly then it isn't a hollow victory like it would be if someone cheated."

Scott nodded as he silently absorbed that and realized that he was beginning to like Bryon's family more and more for unlike a large percentage of vampire kind—at least according to Jasper—didn't care about anybody, but themselves. The Whitlocks believed in fair play while many vampires did not and would do anything to get what they wanted no matter who they hurt in the process.

"Those aren't the only games we play of course as sometimes we play soccer and basketball and many others as well. Really we have a month-long celebration and just enjoy being together as a family. We have movie marathons where we all watch movies together, we play board games although we can't play all those together since they is too many of us, but we have so many games that there are enough for all of us to play at the same time, even if we can't all play the same one since most board games will only take 4 to 8 players."

"I think I understand," Scott said, "the whole point is to spend time together as a family even if you can't play all the same games at the same time because they only allow a limited amount of players."

"That's it exactly," Bryon said. "Dad and mom believe that it brings us all closer as a family."

"I believe they're right about that," Scott said, "as I've never heard of a family as close as yours is and I've only known your family for a couple years and I haven't even gotten to know most of them yet. From what I can remember of my own family I know that none of us was as close as yours, although me and my siblings were closer to each other than our parents."

Bryon snorted that but didn't comment as he had made his opinion known about what he thought of Scott's parents on several occasions already and he wasn't about to beat that drum too long and have his mate annoyed with him.

"So is there anything else our family does for Christmas?" asked Scott determined to learn everything he could about the one holiday the whole family celebrated so that he didn't feel as if he was outside looking in.

"Well, we have been known to rent dirt bikes, have races and see who wins," Bryon said. "That is an expensive proposition though as a lot of time some of the dirt bikes are wrecked just because we're all really rough on the equipment. That isn't something we do every year and not because of the expense as that doesn't really matter, but because sometimes we go places where it just isn't appropriate or we don't have the room in order to do that. It really just all the depends on where my parents decide to celebrate the holiday. Maybe mom and dad will pick someplace like Hawaii," Bryon added. "Now there is somewhere we haven't really been because it's mostly always sunny, except during the rainy season."

"We'll be able to actually go to the beach and not have to worry about sparkling in the sun and sunglasses would be perfectly appropriate fortunately so we won't have to worry about contacts," Scott said liking the idea enormously although he would still prefer Africa.

"Yes, the sun will never be a problem for us again," Bryon said, "which is a great improvement to me because now I can go places that I was they've able to go to before."

"So where are we headed?" asked Scott as Bryon drove the car they had rented towards the center of the city.

"I thought we could do a little shopping for Christmas presents, as its just better to get that out of the way early so that we don't have to worry about it," Bryon said. "Besides you need some more clothes ones you actually pick out and not my mother or my sisters and yes, I am aware that we went shopping before we left, but you've gotten blood on a lot of them and both of us have ripped a few as well, so really I could use a few clothes as well."

"Yeah, I suppose I have gotten blood on a lot of my clothes or ripped them to shreds because I forgot to watch my strength," Scott admitted looking upset at the thought of ruining so many of the nice clothes that had been bought for him.

"You will eventually get to the point to where you don't get blood on your clothes when you hunt," Bryon assured him, "it just takes practice. The first time I hunted I got blood all over one sleeve, although it was really just a couple of blotches, I was still disappointed that I hadn't been neat enough for that not to happen. I remember that it was my favorite shirt to and that back then there was no way to get to stain like blood completely out. Even today the humans still haven't invented a substance to get out such hard to remove stains even if it's not really all that noticeable to anyone, but one of our kind, especially silk. You'll find in the next few centuries of your existence that you'll go through a lot of clothes if only because they get worn out after awhile or because they go out of style. If there's one thing we need to do above all else that's remain in style so that we'll not be too noticeable for being different. We simply can't be forty or fifty years out of style as that would bring us more attention then we need. In the human world appearances are everything."

"Believe me I know it as that's been drummed into my head since I could toddle by my parents," Scott snorted. "Their reasons for keeping up appearances and our reasons though are totally different. I much prefer our reasons to theirs."

"What were your parents reasons for keeping up with appearances?" asked Bryon curiously not sure if he should even ask but Scott had brought the subject so he felt it was probably safe enough.

"Neither of them wanted to appear any different from all there neighbors," Scott explained. "We had to wear the newest and up to date styles for example. There were no just jeans and t-shirts in our house. We were allowed to wear jeans, but they had to be the expensive brand names and we always had to wear a shirt with a collar as we couldn't afford to be totally casual if we wanted people to notice us at least according to 'them.'"

The way Scott said them made it more than obvious that he held them in contempt as even if he couldn't remember everything he had been through growing up he remembered enough.

"You seem to remember more than I really expected you to about you life before," said Bryon knowing that this was not necessarily a good thing. In a way it was a good thing that most vampires lost 99 percent of their memories within the first year of their existences as that would give them relief from melancholy memories, not including him and his siblings of course, but in another it was a shame since some vampires probably came from happy backgrounds with large loving families and to forget about your siblings, parents aunts and uncles was very sad.

"Who knows why I remember more then most of our kind," said Scott with a shrug. "I might have to do with the fact that my change wasn't violent like a lot of our race. I wasn't injured nor was I bitten as part of some vampire's meal and then left to burn for three days when the vampire was scared away for whatever reason."

Scott had absorbed a lot of information about his new race in the last couple of years so he knew all about how most vampires were changed under rather violent circumstances.

"It doesn't really matter in any case at least not to me," Scott added after a moment. "Our memories make us who we are whether it is our old memories from our human life or our new vampire ones."

"Here we are," Bryon said finding a parking space at the shopping center that was about half an hour from the house he and Scott had rented. "Shall we get going?"

"Sure," Scott agreed. "We don't have to finish shopping for Christmas presents today, but it is a good idea to get started. You have to help me pick out the presents for your siblings and parents since I don't know most of your family and what they like yet, although I am sure that will change in a few years once I get to know all your family better."

Bryon nodded as that made sense. Scott had met all of his siblings and his and uncle, aunt and cousins, but he didn't really know them beyond their names. That would change as Scott became more integrated into the family, but it would take time to really get to know them and their likes and dislikes.

"I'll be happy to," said Bryon. "Let's get started, shall we?"

Scott nodded and the two of them joined hands and walked into the Xanadu Commercial and Leisure shopping center in order to buy Scott some new clothes and start shopping for Christmas.

~~~Bryon and Scott~~~

"After we buy you some clothes we really need to go to the SnowZone," Bryon told Scott as the two of them walked through the mall leisurely as they weren't in a hurry.

"What's the SnowZone?" asked Scott curiously.

"It is an indoor ski run," Bryon explained looking excited. "They have both beginner and expert slopes and even faux pine trees and outcropping of rocks to make it more realistic. I thought I could begin teaching you how to ski as that is something my whole family enjoys doing mostly because of the speed. It is also one of the reasons I brought you here instead of going to one of the other shopping centers and there are quite a few in Madrid."

"Sounds like fun," Scott said in a tone that nobody but another vampire could have heard. "I never did have a chance to learn or at least I don't remember learning as a human."

"Good, I'm looking forward to teaching you and at least we can't break a bone like 90 percent of humans do."

"There is that," Scott agreed with a little laugh as he and Bryon strolled the shopping center holding hands the numerous humans around them who were mostly ignoring them for one reason or another. A few shot them dirty looks when they saw two men holding hands, which Scott and Bryon appeared completely oblivious to, although that really wasn't true as both men noticed the dirty looks they just chose to ignore them since they had already known that not everybody would approve of two men in a relationship.

"I also need to start teaching you Spanish and it really shouldn't be too hard not with a vampire's a eidetic memory anyway," Bryon said.

"I can think of things I'd rather be doing then learning a new language," Scott said leering at Bryon only half playfully.

"The thing you'll find out is that it is very easy for vampires to pick up languages," Bryon explained trying to ignore the way his cock stood at attention at Scott's leering look. "I speak quite a few languages myself including Spanish as does every member of my family as you already know. Just being in the country listening to the native people speak helps a great deal, but I do have language discs for Spanish, French and a lot of other languages too. Once you listen to them you will have at least a basic understanding of the language although it will take you longer to master the written part of it."

"Why should I bother when I have you to translate for me?" asked Scott in confusion.

"Because this way you will never be out of your depth when I'm not with you," Bryon explained patiently. "Eventually we're going to want to go all on our own for a few hours to shop for birthdays and anniversaries or just because you need time alone without even me around and also this way nobody can talk in another language and you not understand what they're saying. Besides, trust me it will be really easy for you to pick up 20 or 30 languages in the next hundred years or so depending on how much we travel and actually live in the country and hear the native people speak as language discs will only help so much."

"Alright," Scott agreed after thinking over his mate's words for a few seconds, "you do have a very good point."

"Of course, I do," Bryon said cheekily causing Scott to punch him in the shoulder playfully.

"Cheeky," was all Scott muttered pretending to be annoyed before leaning down to kiss Bryon's cheek.

~~~Bryon and Scott~~~

"Why don't we go to Seville next," Bryon suggested as the two of them were about to leave Madrid.

"Why Seville and what's there that we need to see?" asked Scott never having heard of it.

"It's a port town," Bryon explained, "It has almost 3,000,000 human so we won't lack for food if we do decide to go. Also there is plenty to see and do. We can go down to the port and watch some of the ships come and go for instance. It's one of the major ports in Spain and has been for several centuries. We can go and see the Casa de la Memoria de Al-Andalus," said Bryon explaining what that meant as well as telling of several other things that there were to see. "Really we could spend the next six months there and still not see everything since most things don't stay open past a certain time."

"Alright," Scott agreed. "It sounds like fun actually."

"Good, then that's where we'll go and it is not even very far from Madrid just a little less then five hours if we drive the speed limit and less then half that if we don't."

"I get to drive this time," Scott said looking eager as Bryon had rented a Mercedes convertible that was new this year and so far Bryon had been the only one to drive it, although he understood why Bryon had been the only one driving until now. "You can navigate."

"Alright," Brian agreed after a moment of thinking about it. "I didn't want you to drive it before because I wasn't sure if you had complete control of your strength, but you've been doing very well so I don't see why not."

"I know which is why I've been being extra careful not to break anything for the last month," Scott said, "as I really want to chance to drive that car and in fact I might even buy myself one once we get back to the States."

"Our parents will buy it," Bryon corrected. "Both of them have been wanting to get you a car anyway, but when we left you still hadn't gotten completely ahold of your strength so it wasn't a good idea at that time. No protesting," Bryon added. "You'll just have to accept it as the same thing was done for every single member of our family including Lindsey and Gerik once they joined us."

"So the first car you had…?" Scott said his voice trailing off.

"Was 1960 and yes mom and dad bought it for me even though I could have done that myself, since they had set up separate trust funds for me and my siblings just as soon as we were full grown. I remember that car well," Bryon said smiling nostalgically. "It was a 1960 imperial crown convertible in my favorite color of blue, which had to be custom painted, I might add, which upped the cost. It had florid fins on either side of the back and the shape of a tire on the back as well. It really was a much more classy car then the designs car companies use today. It had more style at least in my opinion anyway. Of course, back then the cars didn't go as fast nor did they fly like the ones today do. I still miss that car sometimes. I kept it for a long as I possibly could without drawing attention to the fact that I owned such a classic, mint condition and worth a fortune car. Eventually though I was forced to get rid of it for reasons I'm sure you can guess."

"You and your family definitely wouldn't have been able to remain invisible when you were seen driving a car like that," Scott agreed.

"Why don't we go back to the house we rented," Bryon suggested. "We only rented the place for a month and that ends in just a couple of days so we need to be ready to go before then."

"Alright," Scott agreed knowing that all the luggage and souvenirs they had would easily fit in the trunk or the backseat of the convertible and what wouldn't they had already shipped back to the house in Philadelphia. "And maybe we should give the bed one last initiation before we have to leave," Scott suggested grinning wickedly.

Bryon laughed as he had been thinking the same thing although he hadn't voiced those thoughts.

"That's fine with me," Bryon agreed leaning over to kiss Scott on the cheek.

"In any case it will be great to see someplace new as we have been here a month. I know we haven't seen everything there is to see in Madrid, but we can always come back some time and I'm sure we will," Scott said.

"We can and will," Bryon agreed.

The two fell silent and Bryon drove the Mercedes convertible back towards the house that had been their home for the last month so that they could pack their things and head to their next destination.

~~~Bryon and Scott~~~

Bryon and Scott sat on the dock and watched the ships come and go. The look of fascination on Bryon's face was something Scott was hoping he would see again as it left him utterly enraptured for he had never seen such an expression of fascination and amazement on his mate's face before.

Bryon had insisted that they come down to the docks just as soon as they had finished unpacking their things in the bedroom of the small condo they had rented instead of a house this time.

"You know I've always dreamed of owning my own sailing craft and someday to sail the sea and go from port to port," Bryon said quietly seeming almost to be half asleep as his voice had a certain dreamlike quality to it. Bryon's eyes were closed and face pointed directly into the wind to catch the breeze coming off the sea and the look on his face was pure bliss. "You know I don't know why I've always been fascinated by the sea, just that ever since I was just a boy, who read a book that my parents bought me about ships and the sea I have been fascinated ever since and have read every factual book I can get my hands on, on the subject."

"I think it has a lot to do with the fact that the sea is mysterious and even today a lot is still unknown about it," Scott suggested quietly not sure if Bryon even knew he was there. "There are things about the sea that humans still haven't discovered, although at least they have cleaned them up from all the pollution that used to contaminate them."

"That's probably at least partly the reason why I am so fascinated, not just by the sea but ships and liners and even sailboats."

"I think you just like to explore like those explorers of the unknown long ago," Scott suggested after thinking about it for a few moments. "Discovering things on land just doesn't have the same mystique that discovering things out in the depths of the ocean does."

Scott looked around him and saw that the dock was a relatively rundown area compared to the other areas they had passed through on there way here. It would probably be a good place to get themselves fed, though when they needed to, since if a sailor disappeared it would likely be assumed that he had gotten himself killed for cheating at a card game or something similar and that his body had been dumped. Even in this day and age those kind of things still happened as although the human race had developed and changed a great deal there was still a lot of bullies, thugs and dishonest people and Scott was sure that that would never change completely even if he and Bryon lived to be ten thousand years old.

"Maybe that's it," Bryon agreed seeming to come out of his dreamlike state all at once.

"So are you going to buy a yacht or some other kind of boat now that we can get out in the sun without our skin giving away that fact that we aren't human?" ask Scott curiously.

"Probably," Bryon agreed, "but only if you agree with to it for as mates we must always make decisions together since we can never be far from each other. Like I can't go haring off to the other side of the world without you for not only would that cause both of us a lot of physical pain because of the bond, it would also cause both of us a lot of emotional and mental pain as well as soulmates aren't ever supposed to be to far apart."

"Sure," Scott answered immediately knowing exactly what Bryon was talking as it had been explained to him already by Jasper. "I have absolutely no problem with buying us a yacht or sailboat and sailing the seas and since we don't need to sleep we can probably get places soon then human since they do need rest. "The only problem I really see is that you buy a ship big enough to hold prisoners because I really don't want to have to live off that synthetic blood for however long it takes us to get from port to port."

"We'll get one with a small cargo hold, which should be feasible and even if we never carry the traditional kind of cargo that is to be sold to make money. We'll kidnap humans at whatever port we happen to stop at," Bryon said.

"And what if we get stopped by the Port Authority of whatever country we happen to be in?" asked Scott.

"Well, they shouldn't search us since we aren't a cargo vessel, but you're right you never know when a human will get suspicious," Bryon said. "I suppose that our vessel is going to have to come with some kind of secret compartment that is big enough to hold say a dozen humans at a time, plus some kind of bathroom facilities, but is undetectable to even the most modern detection equipment. We'll figure something out, before we actually go and buy us a yacht. We want something that looks like a pleasure craft and doesn't look like a smugglers boat as that will definitely raise suspicions from the authorities. As much as I love the sea I would never put the vampire race, not to mention my family, or you in danger by going off half cocked without figuring out the details."

"I never thought you would since I know that your family is important to you," Scott said.

"You are too," Bryon told him kissing his cheek, "but as much as I love you and my family keeping secret the existence of the vampire world is even more important."

"I agree," Scott said. "Maybe we should get going as we can always come back in a few days, but we've been sitting out here for quite some time and a policeman has come by on several occasions already just to make sure we aren't causing any trouble. I'm sure pretty soon the policeman is going to ask us what we're doing here if we don't leave."

"So we have a perfectly legitimate reason for being here as there is nothing against watching the cargo ships, passenger liners and the pleasure boats come and go," Bryon said. "I'll simply tell him that I've always loved the sea and came down here just to watch the ships, which happens to be true. Still I suppose we need to be going as we do have other things to do today," Bryon added rising from where he was sitting Scott joining him a second later. "Thank you for indulging me."

"You're more than welcome," Scott told him taking Bryon's hand in his.

"I try to come down to the docks whenever I'm in a port city just to watch the coming and going of the ships and to also smell the sea air, which has always smelled fresher and cleaner to me for some reason," Bryon explained.

"That's not very very surprising since the human race has stopped using coal and other such substances and came up with a cleaner energy source to power things like cars and ships and that is twice as effective and doesn't wreck havoc on the ozone layer," commented Scott.

"Even back in the 1950s when they were still using substances that caused a lot of pollution I still thought the air down near the sea smelled better then the air in a city, but I suppose that's just a matter of perception," Bryon commented idly as he and Scott walked hand in hand to where they had parked their Mercedes convertible

"Not necessarily," Scott disagreed who did know at least a little history. "You would have smelled the air coming off the sea and that meant that it was probably cleaner as there wasn't as much pollution out on the water that there was on land at that time anyway."

"I never thought of it like that," Bryon commented. "It is a very good point you have made."

"So where do you want to go from here? Back to our condo or somewhere else entirely?"

"Maybe we should drive around the city just so we know our way around and can find things easier when we need to," Bryon suggested.

"Alright," Scott agreed as it was a very good suggestion just in case they needed to make some kind quick escape for whatever the reason, which wasn't to likely, but you never knew so it was just better to know your territory just in case.

~~~Bryon and Scott~~~

Three months later about a week before the 25th of December Bryon and Scott arrived at the place their parents had rented for the Christmas season. This year, to celebrate the fact that vampires could now get out in the sun without sparkling Bella and Jasper had decided to have their Christmas in Hawaii and had rented a large hawaiian estate for the purpose. This is estate had everything for their very large family as there was 35 of them with the addition of Scott. It had an indoor swimming pool as well as an outdoor one and the weather was also relatively warm which was typical of Hawaii, which meant that that they didn't have to worry about wearing long sleeve shirts, jackets or pants and could wear normal beach gear, swimsuits, t-shirts, flipflops and the like. A lot of people would probably think they were strange if they didn't wear jackets and pants into town considering it was the rainy season, but it really wouldn't be all that uncommon as a lot of humans did the same rainy season or not and of course as vampires they didn't have to worry about becoming ill from not wearing the appropriate gear for the rainy weather.

"Hello everyone," Bryon called out cheerfully as he and Scott came in the unlocked back door as they had called ahead and been told where the Whitlocks were celebrating Christmas this year.

"Bryon! Scott! You're here!" Bella exclaimed as she raced into the kitchen where the back door was located in order to give both her sons hugs and kisses since she hadn't seen them in three solid months. Sure they had called every couple weeks just like they had promised but it wasn't the same as being able to physically put her arms around them both.

"Of course we're here, mom," Scott playfully scolded Bella giving her a hug kiss on the cheek. "We promised we'd be here for Christmas, didn't we? If we had decided to change plans at the last minute we would've let you know not to expect us."

Bella lit up as Scott gently teased her as he had never done that before, but then when he had left he hadn't been used to being a vampire as yet, but the time away from everyone but Bryon seemed to have done him a world of good as he was more relaxed and at peace then she had ever seen him.

"Are you ever going to let anybody else have a turn?" came the amused voice of Jasper Whitlock as he stood in the kitchen doorway, leaning against the frame with his arms crossed a smile on his face as he watched the reunion.

"Sure," Bella said as she released both her sons so that Jasper could also give them manly hugs.

"I'm glad you could make it," Jasper told them sincerely.

"After everything Bryon told me about how you celebrate Christmas it wasn't like I was going to miss it, if it could be helped," Scott said. "I'm looking forward to it actually."

"Good," Jasper said pleased. "It's really the only holiday we celebrate as a family. Neither Bella or I saw the point of celebrating Thanksgiving since that's mainly about food and we don't eat or at least not in the traditional sense."

"Christmas just seemed the best holiday for us to celebrate as a family," Bella added. "Not only do we exchange presents on Christmas Eve we have a whole lot of other activities we do as a family. Really Christmas is the only family related major holiday on the American calender besides Thanksgiving even though we have a lot of little, minor ones."

"Really it's just so the whole family including Peter and Charlotte and their children can spend time with each other all at the same time and it just kind of evolved," Jasper said.

"I'm just kind of surprised that you celebrate Christmas when really the holiday is based off of when God's son Jesus Christ rose from the dead even if it has become very commercialized and most people don't celebrate it as a religious holiday anymore."

"That's true," Jasper agreed. "I suppose we could have created our own holiday if we really wanted to, but at least when we all gather Christmas none of the humans think it is strange since the Christmas season is all is all about family and that's even more true today then it was two hundred years ago no matter how commercialized the season has become."

"It's kind of just your way of keeping a low profile and yet being able to get together," Scott said understanding. "Appearances are everything."

"Exactly," Bella agreed.

"We could still all get together more frequently if we wanted to even if it wasn't Christmas," Jasper said. "We can always tell anybody that asked that it was anniversary party or something like that, but Christmas just seemed more appropriate back when he got started and really it's nobodies business what we do, but our own. That doesn't mean, however, that humans aren't a curious species, so it is just better if they don't get curious about us."

"But you're right humans are really a curious species and tend to talk about what they find strange and even if nothing happens it is just better that nobody talks about you at all."

"Exactly," Jasper said not surprised that Scotty had figured out so fast why they celebrated Christmas instead of creating their own as Scotty was a very intelligent man and a good match for Bryon.

"Why don't you all get unpacked and then you can tell us how your vacation went?" Bella suggested.

"Don't you need help getting prepared for the holiday?" asked Bryon.

"No, it is all under control," Jasper said shaking his head negatively. "This is Scotty's first Christmas with us and we want him to enjoy himself so that means that you two don't have to help with the preparations this time. Actually Bella and I as well is Paddy, Chloe, Gerik and Brianna have already been making preparations for the last couple of weeks. They are already over a hundred humans locked up down in what used to be a very expansive wine cellar and Bella's been cooking up a storm and delivering a lot of the food to our prisoners, as well as to the local orphanages, so that they will be all fattened up and ready for us to drain when it is time. We also dug a couple of primitive latrines, so that our prisoners have someplace to pee."

"As Jasper said I have already begun cooking and our meals are all looking very healthy since none of them so far have had the willpower to resist the smell of all the cookies, cakes and roasts I have delivered to their cell," Bella added. "What I haven't given to the homeless shelters and orphanages around the city the humans we are going to feed off of come the 25th got. I for one would rather have my humans healthy and not so thin that there's hardly any blood in them at all or so sick that they are no fun to drain. I know we can't get sick, but that doesn't mean I don't want to have my meals at least mostly healthy."

"I agree with that," Bryon said. "I'd rather have my meals healthy too because if they're only skin and bones they don't have very much blood to drain and then I have to hunt more than I normally do. Besides if they are to underfed they don't really struggle at all when I feed off them and I prefer my meals healthy and with some kick to them if you know what I mean."

"If they just kind of stand there passively letting you drain them it isn't much fun," Jasper said with a nod knowing exactly what his son meant. "I prefer my meals struggling to up until the very end."

"There are some humans with plenty of flesh on their bones that don't struggle to much at all," Bella added, "as if they have just given up on hope long before one of our kind gets ahold of them and so don't care if they die."

After a few more minutes of conversation Bella said, "Well, we'll let you two unpack and then maybe you'd like to go into town and look around since we no longer have to worry about the sun making us sparkle or you can stay here if you want."

Scott and Bryon looked at each other and seemed to come to decision silently just from the use of facial expressions. "I think maybe we'll go into town and look around after we unpack," Bryon finally said.

"Before you do that can I ask how long you to plan on staying?" asked Bella trying to not look or feel to hopeful since her husband and son would pick up on her emotions in an instant.

"Probably at least two or three months," Bryon said. "Scott and I decided that we have had enough traveling for the moment anyway and that we needed to spend some time with our family after the Christmas holidays are over."

Bella's face lit up at that as she missed all her children whenever they weren't around and out doing there things.

"I thought we'd both explore a bit of Hawaii while we are here. I've never been to Hawaii so it's as new for me as it is for Scotty and we thought we might as well take in some of the sites while we are here."

Scott nodded enthusiastically in agreement with Bryon's words. "We both had a lot of fun in Spain and since I know we can always go back sometime we might as well spend some time here and learn some of Hawaii's history and see some of the sites, not to mention buy some souvenirs."

"Before you two disappear to do your own things let me ask you Scott how you are doing with your bloodlust so far?" asked Jasper.

"I'm doing okay," Scott said honestly. "I've had a little trouble with it a couple of times when we were in a crowded club, but other than that I've been doing pretty well."

"He's been doing more than pretty well. He's really has been doing excellently except when he was in a very crowded a club of couple of times just like he said," Bryon praised his mate. "We have been in three different Spanish cities in the three months we've been gone and we always rented a small house or condo instead of staying in a hotel simply because I prefer the privacy and also there's nobody to get curious about our comings and goings or if we don't return for days at a time. In fact really the only time we come home at all is when we needed showers and a change of clothes as otherwise we stayed out for days since we don't need to sleep and since we no longer have to worry about being out in the sun."

Bryon didn't mention the fact that he and Scott had spent a great deal of time in bed fucking each other senseless for days at a time as his parents really didn't need to have that confirmed even if they already knew it intellectually since they were mated themselves and had been for a long time.

"So you made sure that Scott hunted often?" Jasper asked just to make sure.

Both Bryon and Scott nodded vigorously at Jasper's question.

"Every three or four days, like clockwork, or more often if I felt my throat start to burn for whatever reason," confirmed Scott.

"Good," Jasper said radiating satisfaction.

"Bryon have you noticed that you are a lot happier these days? It's like your whole attitude has done an entire 180 from what it was previously," said Bella. "I noticed it as soon as you and Scotty entered the house. You're radiating happiness, so strongly that even I can feel it without you having to use your talent on me."

"What can I say, except that I am," Bryon said with a very goofy grin taking Scotty's hand in his and giving it a squeeze. "Besides you two should know what being in love since you have experienced it yourself."

Jasper snorted at that and said, "That's very true as I used to be like you very unhappy with my lot in life and kind of just drifting through until I met Bella that is and now I am and have been happier then I ever was before I met her."

"Love will do that to you," Bella commented taking Jasper's hand in hers and giving it a loving squeeze. "From what I can remember of when I was human I was never very happy with my lot in life. Of course I was born at the in the early 1900's and was 22 at the beginning of the Great Depression when economic times were very hard so that was certainly part of it. I was content with my life, but not truly happy until Jasper came and turned my unhappy life upside down and I've always been very grateful that he did as I wouldn't have my love or my family if he hadn't."

"And I was never as happy before we met as I have been for almost two hundred years," Jasper said giving his wife a kiss on the cheek. "Also it makes me happy because our family keeps growing as our children begin to find mates of their own. I never believed that I would have a family of my own and that I would always be alone, except for Peter and Charlotte, of course."

The four of them talked for a few more minutes before Bryon and Scott headed to unload their rented car after Bella had let them choose one of the rooms that was not yet occupied.

The rest of Jasper's and Bella's children would of course be arriving within the next few days to celebrate Christmas as a family

~~~Bryon and Scott~~~

"Can I help you cook?" Scott asked Bella a little tentatively just as day later.

"Shouldn't you be spending time with Bryon?" Bella asked touched that Scott would offer as no one else in the family ever had in all the years she had been doing this. Of course, she could understand since they were all vampires and didn't need to bother learning to cook since they didn't eat regular food, but Bella had always been secretly disappointed that none of her children had shown any interest in learning how to cook if only to spend time with her. Jasper had often told her that she had more compassion for the humans that were their meals, then anybody else did and Bella chalked it up to the fact that she had been living doing the Great Depression and knew how hard it had been to keep food on the table back them thanks to the economic slump.

"Bryon and I decided together that this was a good way to spend time with you so we can start to get to know each other a little better even if I don't really need to know how to cook," Scott said with a careless shrug. "Bryon and I will still have plenty of time together since we plan on going out to see some of the island later this afternoon. We've already rented a yacht that has minimum crew to see some of the sea life that is in the area around the island and also the crew is supposed to start teaching us how to sail such a big craft."

"What about the fact that those humans that make up the crew will be able to sense that you are dangerous?" asked Bella looking a little concerned though also intrigued as what Bryon and Scott planned to do, which they never could have if not for that artificial blood that stopped they stone skin from sparkling in the sunlight.

Scott shrugged and said, "So what if they do sense that? It really doesn't matter if they do since some humans have the same air of menace vampires do even if it isn't as strong. Really there is no way to tell we aren't human so long as we keep our sunglasses on to cover our red eyes. Besides we are paying them well and have told them that there will be a bonus for each of the crew if they will teach us how to sail like experts in the next month or so. We told the captain that we were thinking of buying a yacht of our own and wanted to know how to sail first before we did that."

"Were you really considering buying a yacht or was that just the story you told the captain in order to get him to agree to the lessons?" asked Bella looking intrigued.

"Bryon and I really have considered it as we visited Seville one of the seaside towns in Spain that also has a population of about 2.5 to 300 million people. We went down the docks just to watch some of the ships coming and going and the look of pure happiness and joy on Bryon's face as he felt the breeze coming off the sea was something to behold," Scott explained smiling a little as he remembered that time in Spain, but especially in Seville as he had never seen Bryon so excited or enraptured by anything, but then again he had only known his mate for a couple of years and not for centuries like Jasper and Bella had. Still Scott would give almost anything to see that look of fascination and amazement on his partner's face again and he was sure he would multiple times over the next few centuries or at least he hoped so since the animation in Bryon's face at that particular time was so different from his normal facial expressions, the ones he used regularly in order to express himself. Scott didn't tell his adoptive mother about his and Bryon's conversation as that was just something between the two of them and not something Bella really needed to know, or at least didn't need to know right then. "We enjoyed the other two cities we visited besides Seville, but I think the port city will always be one of our favorites and we'll probably go back there quite often in the centuries to come. I actually wouldn't be surprised if sooner or later we visit every port city in the world since Bryon seems to enjoy watching the ships coming and going so much."

Bella listened to Scott and the love in his voice even with his thick Scottish accent was very obvious to her and she was again glad that Bryon had finally found someone to love besides his family

"I'm not really surprised that Bryon loves the sea so much," Bella explained calmly as she chopped up some vegetable for her latest dish and also set Scott the task of mixing up some batter for a cake. "I remember when he was a little boy and Jasper and I bought him a book about ships and liners and the sea and ever since then he has been fascinated with the ocean and all the danger it contains, although that is only part of it. I remember a lot of times when he pestered me and Jasper practically to death about the differences between yachts and liners and boats. Back then speedboats really weren't even invented yet or at least not in the form they are today since the technology has been improved upon since the original portable gasoline engines were invented just a couple of years before I was born. In any case it wasn't necessarily the speed that fascinated Bryon, but how boats and liners and yachts were different from each other and also how they were constructed. For a long time Bryon was fascinated about the sinking of the Titanic back about 43 or so years before he was born and also several other liners that were torpedoed doing one of the wars. The Lusitania in particular comes to mind."

"The Lusitania?" asked Scott curiously.

"A ship built by the White Star line's competition, Conrad. White Star was the one that built the ill-fated Titanic and several sister ships," Bella explained. "Conrad's ships were just as popular as passenger liners as the White Stars as the luxury onboard was first rate, especially in that century. At the time the Titanic sunk it was supposed to be the height of luxury and things had been done that had never been tried on a ship before. Of course the Titanic's main fault was that they weren't enough lifeboats, which is why so many people died and why it was such a tragedy when it hit that iceberg thanks to the inattention of the crew, the radio officer on duty and Captain Smith in particular. Thousands of lives were lost because the company thought it would be a good idea to not put enough lifeboats for all the passengers onboard. It is still considered, even today, one of the worst tragedy's that has ever taken place in history."

"Some good must've come of it," Scott said learning things that he had never known before, although he had of course known what a tragedy the sinking of the Titanic had been despite that fact that it had happened so long ago and decades before he was born as there were still movies and books done on the subject.

"Sure, a lot of good things came of it like a law was passed that there must be enough lifeboats for all the passengers including third class, which is often called steerage, on any passenger liner. The third class passengers were often looked down up on since they hardly have the money of the first class, who were the ultrarich. The third class passengers were often the very poor hoping for a better life on the other side of the ocean. Really the idea of such luxury on a ship is a thing of the past not that they still aren't nice just not height of luxury like back in the early 1900's and really shuttles are faster unless you just want to take your time and aren't in any hurry to get anywhere then shuttles are just better for getting you where you want to go."

"Well, personally I enjoy looking at the scenery and it isn't as if we can't afford it if that's what we want," Scott commented. "Plus even if some storm sunk our yacht it isn't like we would drown."

"Yeah but just think of the difficulties," Bella commented.

"What difficulties?" asked Scott curiously.

"What if you get stuck somewhere that doesn't have any humans are you guys to feed off of and you don't have the ingredients for the synthetic blood?"

Scott shrugged carelessly, and said, "Bryon and I can always swim down to where our yacht sunk and get the ingredients that we have stored you know and then we can always swim to land no matter how long that takes. It doesn't really matter where we swim to land so long as it has people as we can make our way to a more major city from there without too much trouble even if we have to use our own two feet. Even if we land on some primitive island where the natives are still back in the stone ages, which isn't to likely in this day and age, it won't really matter as we can always swim to a more major population center as soon as we get ourselves fed and it isn't like we can't make do or that we will die if we don't feed at regular times. Besides we can always drink animal blood if we're really desperate you know," Scott said, "although I'm not looking forward to that if it does occur, but you do what you have to in order to not let your bloodlust overcome you. We'll be careful, mom," Scott promised, "but this is something that Bryon and I would really like to do as I like the sea to, although not as much as he does, but then Bryon has liked the sea a lot longer then I have been alive so that in all probability has something to do with it. You really need to quit worrying about us."

"I'll always worry," Bella told Scott affectionately giving him a pat on the cheek. "I'll worry about every single member of my family that isn't where I can see them for the rest of my existence. It's what a mother does."

"A real mother," Scott corrected thinking of his mother who had never been much of one all the time he was growing up, although he hadn't realized at the time, but then children didn't. To a child no matter how weird your upbringing really was seemed normal until you got some experience and saw how other families interacted with each other. Perspective was a funny thing and now that he been gone for some years he realized that his parents had never been real loving and concerned with their children at all as they had always gone off to do their own thing and left him and his siblings with a babysitter and when he had been old enough, he was the one that mainly looked after his brother and sisters.

"Anyway back to what we were talking about earlier," Bella said changing the subject, which Scott was grateful for as he didn't particularly want to be all melancholy and thinking about what his parents had done to him always made him sad and depressed. "I think out of all my children Bryon is the only one that is really fascinated by the sea and it is a fascination that continues no matter how old he gets. Sure all my other children, except the three oldest read the same books he did, and sure they enjoyed them, but their fascination with ships and the sea did not continue like Bryon's did. I think it sparks his imagination to imagine himself as a captain of his own ship and all the adventures he could have."

"Probably," Scott agreed.

"Anyway, Bryon owning his own yacht wasn't really feasible until recently when that synthetic blood was perfected since you can't exactly sail the seas if you're going to glimmer in the sun as that would have been a big no no since a lot of humans also enjoy sailing ships and the ocean whether for work or play or both and he would have eventually been see sparkling. I'm sure if that had happened questions would have been asked and word might or might not have eventually gotten back to the Volturi, which would have been very bad."

Scott nodded for he knew all about the Volturi, the rulers of the vampire world, thanks to what Bryon and some of the rest of the family explaining all about the laws that their race lived by and about their rulers.

"Yes, that wouldn't have been good," Scott agreed in what was probably the understatement of the century. "So what do you want to do next now that the cake is in the oven?" asked Scott as he looked around at how productive they had been as they had talked. There were quite a few things in various stages of preparation although only a couple of them could be cooked at one time since the kitchen wasn't all that big and neither was the oven. The house they were renting was only so big after all and the oven was just the right size for the size of the kitchen.

"I think it's time you go spend some time with Bryon although I appreciate the help," Bella said making a shooing motion. "I can finish up and everything."

"Alright," Scott agreed realizing now that Bella had brought his attention to it that he missed his mate dreadfully and was ready to spend some time alone with the man he loved.

"We'll have to do this again sometime," Bella said, "as I have enjoyed our talk."

"So have I," Scott, and smiling kissing Bella on the cheek. "I've learned more about Bryon today than I have in the couple of years I've known."

"It will take awhile for each of you to learn everything there is to know about each other, have a little patience," Bella advised. "Bryon has a lot of life experiences that you don't since he is quite old."

"I know it," Scott told Bella with another smile. "Now if you don't mind I think I'll go find Bryon as I just realized that I'm really beginning to miss him."

"That's the bond at work," Bella said smiling knowingly. "That particular feeling will lessen in a few years once the bond has a chance to fully mature, but until then you are going to start missing him in just a few hours and start to get irritable until you are back at his side again preferably touching in someway until then."

"Thanks mom," Scott said as he walked out of the kitchen without a backwards glance intent on finding Bryon.

"You're welcome," Bella called after him and then got back to what she had been doing.

~~~Bryon and Scott~~~

"Let the festivities begin!" Jasper exclaimed officially setting of the two weeks of the Christmas season for the Whitlock family. It was December 24th in other words Christmas Eve and from just a minute before midnight on the 23rd all the way to midnight on the sixth of January. It was true that technically the Christmas season was over at midnight on New Years, but they were vampires and so even though they celebrated Christmas in their own way they didn't follow the human custom of ending on January 1st and in a lot of cases on the 25th of December.

The whole family was there, including Peter and Charlotte and their six children, which wasn't at all unusual, but also they didn't come every year either. Sometimes Keiran and his siblings came without their parents and also sometimes it was Peter and Charlotte without any of their children or just a couple of them, but this year all were present.

At Jasper's words all 35 vampires sat down on various pieces of furniture and also the floor of the enormous den that was big enough to hold all of them with room to spare if the family just happened to grow. This enormous den had actually been several room at one time and all the vampires could tell where several walls had been knocked out and columns added where structurally needed in order to make a very large space for watching tv and playing pool as there was a table in one corner. The humans who had apparently originally owned the house had had a very large family, well, either that or the original owners had thrown a lot of parties and so had needed the space.

"Now who wants to help pass out presents?" asked Bella excitedly as she absolutely loved Christmas and not for the presents that were heaped on her by her entire family, but because they were all together for the holiday.

"I will," Kian offered.

"And me," Callisto offered.

Bella nodded at two of her youngest children and that was Kian's and Callisto's signal to begin passing out presents one by one until every member of the family had quite a large collection of varying sized packages in front of them.

After all the gifts were passed out there was an instant flurry as paper was ripped to shreds at vampire speed by most of the vampires in the room although all were also careful they didn't damage or destroy the gifts themselves.

Bella watched in delight as every single one of her children and her nieces and nephews made a right holy mess of opening their gifts. Bella or Jasper for that matter didn't really care about the mess because they could have it all cleaned up in just a few seconds with vampire speed and it was much more important to them in any case that their family was enjoying themselves.

"So when do we eat?" called Quin. "I'm starving!"

"Aren't you always?" Alanna told her younger brother with a grin in Quin's direction.

"So sue me, I'm a growing boy," Quin protested.

Every vampire in the room laughed at that as none of them were growing anymore even Quin who was the youngest boy in the family and in fact the only other 'child' of Jasper and Bella that was younger was Quin's sister Callisto who really was the baby of her very large family and she knew it to, often milking it for all it was worth.

Both Quin and Callisto had been the two youngest born out of six and so the other four, all boys, were only minutes older as one blessing for Bella was that she had always given birth pretty easily and a large reason why that was was because of Bella's vampire genes.

"We can start our Christmas feast now," Jasper said smiling indulgently at his family.

Jasper could be hard and unforgiving when the situation called for it, but when it came to his family really he was just a big softie and took most everything they did in stride, unless of course they got themselves into some kind of trouble that had the added danger of revealing themselves to the human world. If it was a situation they couldn't control it was one thing, but if they had deliberately got themselves into trouble of that magnitude then Jasper would be damn furious with the child or children in question. He would still love them, as would Bella, and that would never change, but that didn't mean that they wouldn't be in for the lecture of their existences or that he wouldn't let them know that he was extremely displeased with them and then handle whatever the situation was. By the time Jasper was done whoever had sinned so grievously would wish they never had and to make it even worse Jasper would tell the story to the rest of the family to not only embarrass the child in question, but as a warning to the rest of them to not get on his bad side and making said child stay as he told the story to the others as a further embarrassment.

"I'll need some help in bringing up about fifty humans from the cellar and we can have them outside just so we don't get blood on anything in the house since it is only rented."

"Aren't you afraid of us being seen?" asked Trace curiously.

"No," Jasper told his son calmly. "One of the reasons your mother and I chose this estate is because it is surrounded by an adobe wall that is high enough that no human is going to see what we are doing. Also it sits on enough acres that no human would to be able to see what we are doing even without the wall."

"And if they did they would simply have to disappear," said Peter knowing how Jasper thought as he had known him for a very long time.

Jasper smirked at his brother, but didn't respond verbally.

"I'll help you dad," Bryon offered.

"Me to," Scott volunteered next, not wanting to be separated from Bryon for even a few minutes.

Trace and Paddy also volunteered and Jasper thought five of them would be plenty to bring up fifty humans from the cellar as they were going to act more as guards then anything else. The humans would walk out under their own power, but would be unable to run thanks to Jasper and Bella bringing along the same ball and chains that they had used at Bryon's and Scott's wedding. In fact those same ball and chains had been used quite frequently in the last 30 years ever since Jasper had somehow acquired them. The only reason Jasper had somehow gotten them was because during one of their Christmas celebrations about thirty years ago several of the humans had very nearly escaped when Jasper, Bella, Patrick, and Trey, who had been the only ones at their estate in Philadelphia at the time had been distracted and they hadn't paid any attention to the humans that they had brought in from town to be part of their Christmas feast. It was still a week before December 24th and the whole family would began arriving in ones and two until they were all there for the holiday. The Whitlocks who had actually been at the estate at the time were very distracted, because they had heard that Sawyer was going to be able to make it for Christmas after all when he had told his parents that he wasn't sure he was going to be able to be there that year. All the humans noticing their captives distraction had tried their best to get away and had gotten quite far before the Whitlocks had caught up with them.

No humans had made it anywhere near the front gate which was electronically controlled, but they had made it to the woods that were on one side of the estate and ever since then Jasper had thought it was a good idea to chain their preys legs with heavy manacles just to be on the safe side so something similar didn't happen again.

It wasn't that both Jasper and Bryon couldn't make their prisoners very sorry they had tried to escape with their empathic talents, but the heavy shackles were just sort of extra insurance just in case all the vampires present got distracted again, not that that was likely, but you also never knew.

"Isn't 50 way too many?" asked Bryon his father as soon as they got to the kitchen where the door to the former wine cellar was located.

"I prefer to have a few extras just in case," Jasper explained. "We can always take the ones still alive back to the cellar you know if somebody doesn't finish off all fifty of them tonight then they will tomorrow or the next day."

"That makes sense," Trace agreed as he had been listening to the conversation.

"I'm sure Quin at least will drain at least two if not three and then be ready for two or three more tomorrow night," Patrick commented. "I've never understood how Quin could consume so much and not feel as if he was going to explode from overeating."

"Think of your brother like a teenager," Jasper suggested. "A lot of human teenagers, especially boys, have what appear to be bottomless pits instead of stomachs. Quin and his five siblings are only 13 years old and in vampire years that means he is still a baby. I'm sure that in a few years he won't be able to eat so much, without feeling bloated."

"None of the rest of us were like that though," Bryon pointed out logically.

"Yes, but everyone of you is different just like every human is different," Jasper said with a shrug. "The only thing that makes sense is that the blood in Quin's system circulates through his body at a faster rate than the rest of us and therefore he gets hungry quicker and needs more to feel full, although that is just a theory. Every family has a child that is different in some way or at least they do if they have more than one or two and since there are 21 of you altogether there was bound to be one that just marched to the beat of a different drummer and Quin just happens to be ours, which doesn't mean we love him any less just that he follows a different path from the rest of the family."

"Dad's theory about Quin is the only explanation that makes any sense and it is as good a theory as any," Scott commented speaking for the first time.

"Here we are," Jasper said the second later taking a key out of his pocket and unlocking the cellar door.

All five Whitlocks walked down the stairway that led into the former wine cellar and began selecting 50 humans at random although Scott and Bryon made sure there was at least five or six healthy men in what was selected as that was what they preferred.

"Man they sure look like a fairly healthy batch this year, don't they?" Bryon commented as he examined the humans critically like they were merchandise, which in a way they were. "All of these humans look like fine specimens as they have plenty of flesh on their bones and there isn't a single rib poking though the skin of any of them."

"You can thank your mother for that," Jasper commented with pride. "She's been baking up a storm for the last three weeks and she delivered a lot of the things right down here for our meals to eat so that they would be healthy and ready for our own Christmas feast. Bella has been baking things that were sure to fatten up our meals, cakes, cookies, roasts, things that had a lot of starch and fat in them."

"You all fattened us up just so we would be like lambs led to the slaughter," screamed one female at the five vampires and the rest of the prisoners began to mutter in agreement.

Jasper shot the woman a look and a dose of pain and she shut up and so did the rest of the humans

"Let us go!" screamed one man who looked absolutely as fat as Santa Claus as he had had more than his share of food, but that didn't mean he wanted to die at the age of 42 either. He still had at least sixty or seventy years, before he would die of old age, despite his lifestyle and he wanted to enjoy every single moment of his life before he did as he didn't want to meet his maker to soon since God would be very displeased at all the crimes he had commented in his life.

Patrick shot the man an amused look that was also filled with menace that shut the man up in the blink of an eye.

"Well," Jasper said as he surveyed in the situation calmly but the upward twitch of his lips let all his children know that he was very amused at the situation. "Let's finish selecting our meals for tonight and get back upstairs to your starving brother."

"What did you do with the shackles you brought from home?" asked Trace knowing the routine.

"Bella and I put the two chests over there," Jasper said pointing at two trunks in one corner of the cellar. The trunks of course had come from home and had been used to contain the shackles for years so that they were out of the way and stored until needed and so that they could get them past airport security. Security of course had been bribed to just pass them on through without checking in the trunks to throughly. Since Jasper and Bella had their own plane they didn't have to worry about some overzealous security guard looking to discover what was in the trunks besides clothes, and in fact Jasper and Bella always loaded their plane themselves just to be on the safe side and so no human would wonder why the trunks were so heavy.

All five vampires finished examining the merchandise and then made ten selections apiece, examining the humans carefully like they were picking out vegetables or fruits at a market and once that was done all five vampire made sure to secure the heavy manacles around the men and women's legs before leading them up the cellar stairs and into the kitchen. The clank of the the heavy iron balls on short chains attached to one side of the manacles made quite a bit of noise coming up the stone steps that led to the kitchen, not that it really mattered.

The five Whitlocks led the 50 prisoners out the kitchen door where the rest of their family was waiting and then had them all lined up in a straight line so that everybody could make their selection.

"It's about time!" Quin exclaimed his eyes as black as pitch indicating he was indeed very hungry.

Jasper shot his son an amused look, but didn't comment.

All the Whitlocks walked along the long row of humans examining them as if they were merchandise for sale and then made their selections. Most of them only chose one since they knew they would be doing the same thing the very next night and would be for two weeks.

As for the three that only drank animal blood Jasper and Bella had gone out to a forest that was nearby and brought back several mule deer for Alanna, Merry and Gav to drain and would do so again for all two weeks of the feast so that the three of them that didn't drink animal blood would have something to eat for every day. Gav, Merry and Alanna preferred carnivores true, but still appreciated their parents thoughtfulness all the same, knowing that bringing back carnivores for the three of them to drain would be asking to much as they tended to be wild and ferocious and although a vampire couldn't be harmed by their claws and teeth they could attract attention from the humans that they didn't need so the three animal drinkers weren't about to complain, since their father and mother had already done more for them without being asked.

Quin however chose two and Jasper thought in amusement that he would probably be back for a third just as soon as he finished draining those two. He still sometimes wondered how his son could eat so much and then do the same the very next night, not that it really mattered so long as all his children and his wife were happy and healthy.

Jasper joined Bella and the two of them took their separate meals off to one side and held hands as they drained the man and woman together with both humans struggling and screaming all the while. The screaming was muffled considerably thanks to Bella's and Japer's free hands being placed over their meals mouths as they didn't want to attract any other humans attentions and especially not the human authorities. It wasn't that they could deal with the situation if it occurred, but it was just better if the situations never came up at all.

"So what other activities do you have planned for tonight?" asked Scott as soon as everybody had finished their meals 15 minutes later.

"Well, first as I'm sure you could have guessed we go bury the corpses," Jasper said. "Then we take the humans that we didn't drain back to the cellar so that they can be drained sometime in the next two weeks and then we'll play some boardgames until the sun rises at least. After the sun is up we will probably set up a volleyball net or will play capture the flag for which we have plenty of space for. It's not that we couldn't play volleyball at night since we see much better than your average human but also we make a lot of noise and since humans sleep at night we don't need to draw attention to ourselves by being loud at two or three a.m."

Scott nodded at that made complete sense. He had come to realize in the last year that being a vampire, basically meant being invisible to the humans that they fed off of. 99.9% of the population must never find out that vampires were actually real. He had been the exception if only because he was Bryon's mate and had been turned into a vampire shortly afterwards, which was well within vampire laws.

If a human did find out about them or worse a lot of humans they had to be killed or turned into vampires and so the Whitlocks went out of their way to remain invisible to the human race. That however, didn't mean that they still couldn't have fun and so far it had been lots of fun and the Christmas holiday for the Whitlocks had barely begun.

~~~Bryon and Scott~~~

It was almost six months after the Christmas holidays and Scott had decided that he wanted to go check up on his family in Scotland.

"I just want to see how my siblings are doing," Scott explained, "especially my younger brother as he should be 18 in about two weeks and able to get away from my parents. I know we can't be seen by anybody who used to know me, but could we check on them when everybody is in bed for the night? Nobody has to know we were ever there."

"Alright," Bryon agreed eagerly. "You know I've been wanting to go to Scotland anyway and deal with your parents for what they did to you."

"I won't promise we'll do anything about that," Scott said. "We'll simply have to see what the situation is and if they can be dealt with, without upsetting any of my brothers and sisters. It's been what about eight years or thereabouts since I ran away so all my siblings should be all grown up including my youngest brother who was only 10 or 11 when I left."

"Man your parents must of had all five of you one right after the other if you were only 18 when you left and your brother was 10 or 11, really that's only a couple years apart for the five of you."

"Well it helps that my three siblings after me are triplets," Scott explained enjoying Bryon's look of amazement.

Bryon looked astonished at that piece of information. "Are you kidding me? Triplets what are the odds? Triplets are extremely rare even in this century, although I will admit they are a little bit more common then they were when I was born."

"Yep, two girls and a boy," Scott said. "One of my sister's was born first, then my middle brother and then my other sister was born last. They were born when I was about three and my youngster a brother was born about five years later. I seem to vaguely recall that my parents tried several times to have other children after the triplets were born, but were mostly unsuccessful, although I believe there were also several times where my mother had a miscarriage. After my youngest brother was born my parents decided it wasn't a good idea to try to have anymore for it was a very hard birth where my mother was in labor for almost 24 hours straight. I seem to remember my parents talking about how the doctor told them that they shouldn't try to have anymore children as it could kill my mother, by putting to much of a strain on her body."

"I'm surprised they had five of you at all since they didn't seem to like children all that much or at least that was the impression you gave me when you told me what they tried to do to you and then how they disowned you."

"I believe that they loved us all in their own way," Scott, commented. "It wasn't in the way your parents love us, but when you're a kid you don't realize what kind of restrictions you are growing up under. From what I can remember I had a basically happy childhood until I reached that age where I should've started showing interest in girls and that's when my parents started to become so demanding and when they never seemed happy or satisfied no matter what I did to try to please them. I'm not saying it's right how my own flesh and blood treated me from fifteen until I ran away, just that I grew up pretty happily until then. In a way I think the way your parents raised you and all your siblings was better than how mine raised me and mine. For one thing your parents accepted me right away even though I was dating their son. I mean a lot of people are disgusted by a gay or lesbian couple. In most humans eyes that kind of makes you an anomaly and a large percentage of people hate anything that is different or strange as conformity is what matters. Sure all humans have been different personalities that make them unique from all the others, but letting it be known that you are different in that particular way it's just asking to be picked up and ridiculed by most people."

"Or thrown out on their ear by people who should love you no matter what your sexual orientation is," Bryon commented in a growl his red eyes flashing angrily.

"Or thrown out of the home you had grown up in just weeks after you finish high school," Scott agreed. "Although technically I did run away."

"You might have run away, but did your parents bother to show any concern when you disappeared? No, of course not, instead they just disowned you instead of doing what they should by searching for their son who they claimed to love and who was after all barely 18. Mom and dad would never do that to me or any of my siblings whether we turn out gay, straight or bisexual, because they truly love us. Also we could lose control of our bloodlust in front of a hundred humans and mom and dad wouldn't stop loving us and would just deal with the situation, by murdering every last one of the humans who had seen what we are and that includes even a child or a dozen children if need be. They might feel incredibly guilty for it afterwards, but they would do it in a heartbeat. Unlike your former parents mom and dad love all their children unconditionally, no matter how many or of what magnitude mistakes we make."

"It's understandable why they do though since they never even dreamed of having a family before they came into possession of that amulet."

"While that may be true, I truly believe that if mom and dad had eventually had a family in the traditional vampire way they still would have loved them unconditionally and never thrown them out no matter how many mistakes they made, including if they turned out to be gay or bisexual instead of straight."

Scott knew that meant biting a human and then injecting venom into their system in order to turn that person into a vampire instead of just draining them dry of their blood like when they fed.

Scott considered what he knew about Jasper and Bella and found out that he agreed with his mate's assessment of what they would have done if they had gone the traditional vampire route in order to have a family, well unless they had changed very drastically decades before they had had all their children.

"I agree with you," Scott said finally figuring that no once changed that much since a person's personality was formed as children and then teenagers.

"I was afraid to tell my parents I was gay for a long time as just like you I was afraid of their reaction, but really I should've known better as they had never given me any reason to think that they would think any less of me or throw me out and not love me anymore if I just happened to be a little different."

"When did you finally come clean with mom and dad?" asked Scott.

"It was about a month after I met you actually," Bryon admitted a little sheepishly. "I knew that they would have to know about you if you and me were to continue to have relationship and if I was eventually going to change you into a vampire, which I would have done whether you had agreed to become a one or not since as you know a vampire cannot survive the loss of a mate once found."

Scott did indeed know as Jasper had confirmed what Bryon had told him. At first he hadn't believed that Bryon's parents would accept his relationship with their son and would eventually drain him just because they wanted Bryon to eventually get married and have children of his own. He had been thoroughly disabused of that notion and of his worries when he was told that if anybody tried to break them up and if Scott were to die for whatever reason Bryon would soon follow him into death as half a vampire mated pair couldn't live without his other half.

"I know it," Scott said. "I'm kind of glad it didn't come to that."

"So am I," Bryon agreed giving Scott a kiss on the lips. "So sometime in the next week or two we need to head to Scotland and head to the town you were born, which is...what is the name of your hometown anyway? That's something you you never told me."

Scott snorted at that. "You're lucky I remember considering how many memories you lose when you are turned into one of the undead."

"Well if you didn't remember I could always break into the birth records of Scotland if I had to."

"Oh I wasn't aware you knew how to do that," Scott said in surprise not seeming at all upset that what Bryon was talking about knowing how to do was completely illegal.

"It really is a necessary skill when you're a vampire," Bryon explained, "especially if you hang around humans at all frequently since a lot of places require you to have birth certificates and social security numbers nowadays or at least a driver's licence and it isn't like we can get these things in the normal way since humans aren't supposed to know we exist."

"A point," Scott acknowledged. "Anyway back to your earlier question about my hometown which is named Melrose by the way. It is a very small place with only a couple of thousand residents, which is why we really need to stay out of sight because most people know everyone else at least by sight if not by name. The residents of Melrose might not know that I am supposed to be dead since we never did stage an accident for me, but I look different enough that if anybody who knew me recognizes me they will immediately begin to question why I look so different."

"You're right and as you know even though you still look basically like Scott, there are also differences like the white, bloodless skin, and the fact that you are even more handsome since all the little imperfections were burned away when you went through the transformation and also the way you now move, which is like a predator. All these little differences will be noticeable and that doesn't even include your eyes as even with contacts they'll never be the same gray they were when you were human, which is why you need to stay out of sight," Bryon said. "Nobody there knows me there though so I don't necessarily need to not be seen."

Scott nodded in agreement with Bryon's analyze of the situation. "So what are you planning on doing once we get there?" asked Scott curiously.

"It really depends on the situation," Bryon explained. "We'll check up on your siblings and see how they're doing. Your triplet siblings should be at least 22 and they might have married or have moved away for all we know."

"I don't think so," Scott said shaking his head in denial. "They would've stayed close at least to keep a close eye on our youngest brother as they didn't agree with how our parents treated me after they discovered I hadn't had a girlfriend even once. My parents couldn't know for sure that I didn't like girls at all and should've thought I was just a late bloomer, but they treated me like crap, assuming the worst and the triplets knew it even though they were only fourteen almost fifteen when I eventually ran away. There would be no way in hell that the triplets would leave their youngest sibling to the tender mercies of our parents without some kind of positive influences in his life until he was old enough to get out on his own."

"So you and your siblings were pretty close just like me and mine are," Bryon said slowly.

Scott nodded empathically. "And we became even closer once our parents turned into two total strangers at least towards me. It was like they couldn't accept one of their children was just a little different. It didn't seem to matter that in every other way I was a perfectly normal teenager, I played sports, I got good grades, I was a member of several school clubs, I was planning on applying to several colleges when I graduated... It was as if that one difference totally changed their opinion of me, which meant that they didn't really love me at all if their treatment of me could change that easily. They went from being proud of my accomplishments to hating my guts all in the space of about a year or that was how it seemed to me anyway. For a long time I was totally confused by their changed attitude as I had no idea what I had done to have my parents treat me so bad. Finally I came to the realization that they had figured out I was gay even if they hadn't had it confirmed as that really was the only thing different in my life at that time. I think that at least partly the change in attitude had a lot to do with the fact that keeping up appearances was always very important to them and they couldn't stand the thought of not having a son who was not straight."

"That doesn't make it right," Bryon said looking angry on Scott's behalf.

"No, it does not," Scott agreed. "Let's not talk about it anymore though, as I can think of a lot more important things we could be doing."

"Like what?" asked Bryon with a raised eyebrow already knowing what his mate was thinking.

"Like me fucking you senseless and you doing the same to me," Scott suggested with a wicked grin taking his clothes off at vampire speed and standing in front of Bryon totally and completely naked with his cock already standing at attention.

Bryon almost drooled at the sight of his mate's naked body and was also out of his clothes tossing them into a corner in a split second. "I'll be happy to oblige you."

"I knew you would be," Scott said with another grin large enough that almost split his face two as he gazed at his mate's naked body with something that was almost reverence.

"Let's get started shall we?" asked Scott as he and Bryon fell onto the bed with him on top.

Bryon nodded unable to speak at all as Scott was already licking, kissing and lightly nipping his way up and down his chest without so much as a by your leave, but Bryon would have it no other way and he knew that neither would Scott.

~~~Bryon and Scott~~~

Bryon and Scott had decided that they would rent a car in Glasgow as that wasn't too far from the town of Melrose, really just an hour and a half or so if you were driving the normal speed limit and main roads that is. As vampires they planned on taking the back roads since it wouldn't be full of cars and cops and drive as fast as the rental car would allow them because as vampires they couldn't be hurt if they happened to wreck, which was very unlikely thanks to a vampire's reactions, which were much faster than a human's.

Once Bryon and Scott had arrived in Glasgow they decided that it was a good idea to get them a meal before they headed to the town of Melrose as neither one of them wanted to drain one of the residents of Scott's hometown because it might be somebody he had known. Not to mention a small town was not the best place to get a meal when that person's disappearance would be noticed almost immediately.

Bryon had already warned Scott in advance to overindulge and drain at least 4 or 5 if he could because they weren't sure how long they were going to be in Melrose.

"So what's our plan of action once we get to my hometown?" asked Scott from the passenger's seat as Bryon drove. Since Scott didn't remember the way to his hometown they had a GPS that was giving Bryon directions.

"Well, as I said a couple of weeks ago we're just going to have to wait and see what the situation is," Bryon said calmly. "One thing that's a must though is that you need to stay out of sight because somebody who knew you well is bound to recognize you even with your very changed appearance. Whoever does recognize you might not be absolutely sure that it is you, but even if you tell them a totally different name your accent is bound to be a dead giveaway as at least being from the Scottish Highlands, which will make that person suspicious since it is obvious that you are from somewhere close by at least."

"I really need to work on getting rid of my accent," Scott said because he knew Bryon was right.

"Don't worry that will come in time," Bryon assured his mate. "A hundred years from now you'll sound just like everyone else unless you want your accent to show. My dad for example can turn on his very thick southern accent when he wants to and also turn it off so there is only a faint trace of southern in his voice."

"He can?" asked Scott in astonishment. "I've never heard him do that before."

"Well, you haven't known him very long and he mainly uses it when he's hunting. It's his way of turning on the charm to lure his prey somewhere that he can feed off them in peace, even though he can and does use his empathic talent sometimes as well depending on the situation."

Scott snickered at that as he could just imagine his adoptive father turning on his accent to get whoever he was trying to lure to follow him like an obedient puppy dog or follow his instructions.

"I would love to be able to do that," Scott said that moment. "I would love to get rid of my accent until it's either very faint or gone entirely and only bring it out when I want to turn up the charm."

"That will happen, and in 20 or 30 years you probably won't even notice how much your accent has improved unless it's pointed out to you."

"'Turn right in 1.4 miles,'" the GPS interrupted their conversation.

Bryon did as instructed and then the GPS told them to take the next left and that they should reach their destination in 3 miles.

"We won't need the GPS again at least to find our way to Melrose since we've already driven the route once and with my vampire memory I can get us back to Glasgow at top speed without any trouble at all," Bryon said in satisfaction. "We did need it this first time since I've never been Melrose and we didn't want to get lost as it would have taken us far longer to find your hometown if we had."

"And we're arriving just as it is starting to get dark," Scott said. "That's good, isn't it?"

"Yes, it is," Bryon agreed with a wicked grin. "We should be able to keep ourselves basically invisible since most people in a town this size go to bed long before midnight and businesses close up for the night by four or five."

"So what are we going to do between midnight and six or so when people start to rise?"

"Well, for one thing we'll leave the car here about 5 miles from town and make sure to hide it throughly so nobody finds it accidentally," Bryon said already formulating a plan of action. "We don't want anybody to be aware there are two strangers in town, especially since one of them isn't really a stranger at all. First we're going to observe your family and try to pick up information about them without them or anybody else ever knowing we were there."

"And if that doesn't pan out?" asked Scott.

"Then we will have to think of something else," Bryon said. "I'm afraid tactics really aren't my forte like they are my dad's and some of my brothers and sisters. I take after my mom more than I do my dad in that particular way."

"There's nothing wrong with taking after your mom," Scott told him as he lovingly ran a hand up and down by Bryon's bare arm. "I happen to love your mom very much and think of her as my mom to. Vampire or not your mom is one of the nicest women I have ever met, very loving, generous, and compassionate. I mean she bakes various dishes for the homeless shelters of whatever city she is living in at the time for goodness sakes and most people don't even think about the humans that are less fortunate then themselves much less do anything about it!"

Bryon would have blushed if he could have but instead radiated embarrassment at his mate's words for he'd had no idea that Scott thought of his mother like that and then comparing him to the woman that he loved and adored was quite the compliment.

"Let's get going," Scott said pretending not to notice Bryon's embarrassment even though he was very aware of it.

"Let's go," Bryon agreed the two of them getting out of the car and Bryon making sure to lock the doors before they headed into town at vampire speed.

~~~Bryon and Scott~~~

What Bryon and Scott discovered over the next two or three days as they lurked around town nearly invisibly was not good in the least. It turned out that Scott parents had died in a car crash several years ago and that one of Scott's sisters whose name was Julia had stage III leukemia cancer and had very little chance of survival at this point as the cancer had spread to far.

What was even worse was the fact that what the two vampires had discovered was that the elder Blackwoods had been involved in something very shady and had left almost no money to their children. Two of triplets of course had jobs but they didn't make anywhere near enough to pay for their sister's medical bills not to mention their younger brother's college education.

"We must do something," Scott told Bryon passionately. "I know we can't allow my siblings to see us, but can we anonymously pay off my sister's medical expenses at least?"

"Yes, we can," Bryon assured his mate. "I'll arrange something in the next couple of days so that at least your sister's Julia's medical expenses are taken care."

"I don't want my sister to die, Bryon," Scott said a little bit more calmly, although he still looked sad and upset, which Bryon could hardly blame him for considering that his sister had stage III cancer.

"Well, we could turn her into a vampire," Bryon said slowly after thinking about it for a few moments.

"But what about the hue and cry that will happen when she just disappears from the hospital?" asked Scott.

"Well, my idea is that we simply bring all your siblings into it," Bryon said thoughtfully. "It would be much easier to get Julia released from the hospital if we went to your sister Ailsa and your brothers Jason and Henry."

"But isn't that kind of dangerous?" asked Scott a little apprehensively. "My siblings know what I used to look like for heaven sakes and I look so different now they'll be sure to ask me why."

"Well, we'll have to tell them what we got any way if we got to get them to agree to get in your sister released from the hospital," Bryon explained. "I was thinking that if they agree to it we turn them all into vampires."

"As much as I would enjoy having all my siblings with me for eternity I don't know if turning them all into vampires is a good idea. Dad has always said that dealing with one newborn is hard enough but dealing with four would be even harder, especially since they won't have very much warning as to what's happening to them in the first place and so will likely be your typical newborns and not like I was at all."

"That's true, but I believe that we need to leave the decision up to dad about that as I'm sure he would understand that you don't want to lose your sister to leukemia unless you absolutely have to and at stage III that means that there is almost no hope for a cure and that Julia will soon slip into a coma. If all your brothers and sisters had stayed healthy and if your parents hadn't been involved in whatever criminal activities they were involved in this probably wouldn't be necessary. Besides it wouldn't be just dad handling four newborns but at least part of the family as well and that will make it a lot easier than if dad had to handle so many by himself, not that he couldn't do it if he had to."

"Alright you have made some very good points," Scott said finally after thinking about it at vampire speed. "We need to contact dad and tell him the situation, but before we do let's make sure that the situations as bad as some of the townspeople are talking about or if they have just blown it all out of proportion, which you have to admit is possible."

Bryon nodded in agreement with what Scott was saying as humans did tend to gossip, and the Scots were particularly bad about that, and the stories they told got bigger and more exaggerated every time and it didn't matter whether that story was happy or sad.

~~~Bryon and Scott~~~

"Let me see if I have all my facts straight," Jasper said on the phone that Scott was holding to his ear. "You two decided to go to Scotland to check on Scott's family and found out that his oldest sister is in the hospital with stage III leukemia, is that correct?"

"Yes, that's right dad," Scott said into the phone. "We've already paid off all Julia's medical bills anonymously, but I really don't want to have my sister dead. I mean she's only 22 for heaven sakes! She should have her whole life in front of her! And she should be able to do what wants without having to struggle with leukemia. She should be able to go to college and be a doctor, which is what she always wanted anyway if I'm remembering correctly, but what she shouldn't have to do is struggle with this deadly disease that she has no hope of winning now that it's in stage III. It probably it won't be long before she slips into a coma, which is common with leukemia stage III patients. As it is she's confined to her hospital bed and can't even get out and do her normal activities because she's too weak. What Bryon and I found out is that she's apparently been struggling with this for three years ever since she was 19 years old and she has just finally lost the battle in the last couple of months. My parents apparently died about a year after Julia got sick and none of my siblings had anyway to pay all the medical bills."

"Alright, I understand what you're saying," Jasper said calmly understanding the desperation that Scott must be feeling as he still loved his siblings very much even if he was now a vampire. "Are you two sure that the only way to solve this is to tell your three remaining siblings what you are and then turn all of them into vampires?"

"Yes dad, we're sure," Bryon spoke in his normal tone of voice knowing that his father could hear him over the phone with his vampire hearing. "Scott and I checked into this thoroughly, before we called you. I even snuck into the hospital in the middle of the night when there wasn't as many doctors or nurses on duty and found Julia's medical chart and believe me the prognosis is not good and in fact I don't know how it could be any worse. I read the whole chart after I found it at vampire speed and I was in and out of there in less than 10 minutes. The hard part actually was finding what floor Julia was on."

"Bryon and I believe that the only way to get Julia out of the hospital in order to turn her into a vampire is to get my family's consent, which would mean telling my siblings what we are and then turning them as well."

"Couldn't you just get into the hospital at night and kidnap her?" asked Jasper.

"To much security nowadays in hospitals dad," Bryon told his father. "Too many cameras, even though I'm sure we could get past those eventually, but really that would take too long."

"Why don't you just wait for a storm and blow out the power? You can use the darkness as a cover to get Julia out of there," Jasper suggested.

"Too many backup generators that are programed to come on in just three minutes from the power outage and we can't take them out without making it obvious that it was a planned attempt and not just an accident because of lightning and thunder."

"Besides this isn't the stormy season and we won't be having a storm like you are suggesting for several months," Scott added. "It'll rain some sure, but not storm like that for quite awhile and by then Julia might well be dead. Really this is the only way that Bryon I see that saving my sister can be done without a whole lot of complications."

"Very well then," Jasper said giving in with a sigh as he knew that Scott's family was important to him even now that he was now one of the undead and Jasper could hardly blame him for that since he, himself would do anything he could to protect his family that now included Scott. "Let them know what you are, but make sure they understand that we can't leave them human once they do know and that they will either have to die or be turned into vampires. Once you do convince them why don't you bring them to the estate that's outside of Houston Texas as that will have plenty of room for them to spend their newborn year and also a lot of humans for all of us to feed off of."

"We could use that new synthetic blood instead of bringing humans to the house," Bryon suggested.

"That's a good suggestion son, and we might supplement their diet with that as that would mean we wouldn't have to kidnap as many humans for four newborns to feed off of, which would be good, but I still want them to have real, fresh blood as well and the only way to get that is to have humans kidnapped and locked up. Besides this will show Scott's siblings that all they have to do is let their instincts take over when they are hunting and we won't have to instruct them on how to do that once they are ready to be taught how to hunt. Just let me know when you're on your way so Bella and I can make a few preparation in advance."

"Alright," Scott agreed. "I'm really sorry about springing this on you so suddenly, but I really had no idea that there would be any problem when Bryon I decided to come check up on my family to make sure they were doing okay. We had no idea that my parents had died in a car crash just five years after they had disowned me, or that Julia had gotten leukemia at just 19. What really makes me mad though is I should have been here for the last three years, but because I ran away I wasn't."

"Hey don't take any of the blame on your shoulders," Bryon told him before Jasper could respond. "This is not your fault, if it's anybody's it's your parents for being such assholes and not accepting you for who you are and for acting as they did. What matters is that you're here now and you found out about your sister being so ill before she died and that is what you should concentrate on. Besides your parents would have disowned you anyway even if you hadn't run away unless you agreed to marry that girl and in your head you know that."

"Bryon is right, Scott," Jasper told his son his voice gentle and understanding. "You should listen to what he's telling you. There's no way you could have known that your parents would die in that car crash or that Julia would come down with the most deadly and insidious diseases known to humankind. What you need to concentrate on now is talking to your other three siblings and planning on what you are going to say to them. You must make them understand that they have no choice in the matter. Once they know that our kind exist then they either have to be killed or turned into vampires themselves and that there are only two choices for them. This is not your fault and I'm sure Bryon will keep telling you that until you believe it."

"I certainly will," Bryon agreed as he gave Scott a hug and a kiss on the cheek.

Scott relaxed a little and seemed a bit more at peace with himself then before, which was very good as far as Bryon was concerned.

"Actually really it is a good thing that Bryon is there, because he, unlike most of Bella's and mine other children inherited my talent and he will therefore be able to calm your siblings reactions down, which are bound to be explosive to say the least once you tell them that vampire's are real and that their oldest brother is now one of them."

"That's a very good point, dad," Scott said.

"Yes, it is," Bryon agreed then added, "We'll call as soon as we talk to Scott's younger siblings."

"I'll be expecting it," Jasper said. "Your mother and I love you, and Scott very much."

"We know and we love you and mom too," Bryon told his father. "Bye dad, talk to you soon.

"Bye, son," Jasper said before you hung up the phone.

~~~Bryon and Scott~~~

Scott rang the doorbell of the house that he had grown up in. Luckily when his the elder Blackwoods had died in that car crash the house already been paid for so that was one headache and expense that his brothers and sisters hadn't had to deal with.

The door opened a minute later by Henry, Scott's middle brother and who was also the middle child of triplets.

Henry stared at Scott for a minute at first not recognizing his elder brother. One reason could be that Scott was dressed in a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, which never would have been allowed when Scott was living at home. Also he was wearing an expensive pair of sunglasses and looked elegant and sophisticated, which was not something Henry could ever remember seeing his older brother look like before.

"Scotty?" asked Henry finally. "Is that really you?"

"It's really me, Henry," Scott said grinning at his brother and trying to ignore the smell of Henry's blood, which smelled absolutely delicious. "Why don't you invite us in and Bryon and I will explain why we are here?"

"Sure, come in," Henry said realizing that he had been so stunned by his older brother's appearance that he had been extremely rude.

Scott and Bryon stepped inside and once the front door was closed Scott wrapped his brother in a hug. "It's so good to see you, Henry," Scott told him sincerely.

"It's great to see you too," Henry said hugging his brother back extremely happy to have this part of his life back again, a part he thought he had lost forever when his parents had disowned his oldest brother. "Now are you going to explain why you're here? It's not that I'm not happy to see you as we didn't exactly agree with our parents decision to disown you, but we didn't really have any say in the matter."

"Do you know why they decided to disown me?" asked Scott.

"Not really as they never really explained what you had done that was so bad that they pretended you never existed in the first place. To them they never had a son named Scott and they did their best to wipe any memory of you from their lives and from the lives of their remaining children as well, but me, our brother and our two sister's never forgot no matter what our parents wanted. I don't know how you can forget someone you grew up with, got in trouble with, and got sick with for God's sakes, although that was what our parents seemed to expect."

Bryon growled lowly at that as he felt that he had been cheated out of his revenge on the elder Blackwoods not that there was anything he could do about it.

"Before we get into anything the discussions why don't you go get Ailsa, and Jason as I don't want to have to explain this more than once."

"So you know then that Julia has cancer and that she's fighting for her life," Henry said slowly immediately noticing that Scott didn't mention their other sister.

"Yes, it was the main reason why Bryon and I decided to approach you. If I had found out that everything was going fine when Bryon and I came into town to check up on you, you never would've known we were here, but since Julia is so sick with stage III leukemia..."

"How do you know that she has stage III leukemia?" asked Henry looking astonished.

"You should know by now that people talk," Scott explained, "especially in a small town like Melrose and Bryon and I simply stayed out of the way and listened."

Scott didn't bother to tell his brother that Bryon had snuck into the hospital and scanned Julia's records so that he could tell Scott exactly how sick his sister really was. Scott hadn't dared go into the hospital himself with all the injured and the sick humans around as there would've been too much of a chance of him attacking someone with an open wound. Scott had a good control of his bloodlust that was true but he also still had years before he had perfected that control and so he hadn't wanted to risk it.

"Oh, I didn't think of that," Henry said knowing that Scott was right and that people did tend too talk and bad news did tended to get around faster than good news did. Why that was Henry didn't know, not that it really mattered at the moment.

"I'll go get Jason and Alisa who are upstairs doing who knows what," Henry said disappearing in the direction of the stairs.

No more than five minutes later Scott's three siblings appeared on the stairs and while they were gone Scott and Bryon listened to them move around and talk on the floor above.

Scott was sure that he wouldn't be able to hear his siblings talking at all on the second floor of the house if it wasn't for his new much improved vampire hearing, which he was grateful for.

"Scotty!" Alisa squealed as she ran into her older brother's arm giving him a hug and Scott hugged her back carefully since he knew he was now much stronger than her and could crush her bones with no problem at all.

"It's good to see you too sis," Scott said giving his sister an affectionate kiss on the cheek.

"Why are your hands and arms so cold?" asked Alisa in surprise as Scott's lips touched her face.

Alisa pulled back and studied her older brother critically for a second. "Why is your skin so white? It looks as if it's never been touched by the sun at all."

"Why don't we all sit down," Jason suggested after he had also given his brother a hug. "I'm sure one of the reason Scott and his friend are here is to explain some things to us."

Scotty lips twitched at that as Jason had always been the practical one and also the most observant, next to his sister Ailsa.

"Well first off let me introduce you to Bryon," Scott began, "my husband."

All three of the Blackwoods reacted to that in utter astonishment and disbelief.

"You're gay?" Ailsa almost shouted.

"Calm down, Alisa, give Scott a chance to explain," Henry who had been silent up until now said.

"It's a genuine pleasure to meet you all as Scott talks about you all constantly and how much he misses all of you," Bryon said shaking the hands of Scott's three siblings before sitting down again.

"It's nice to meet you too," Jason said answering for his other two siblings as he studied Bryon intently as if trying to figure out a puzzle. Jason wasn't as surprised as his other two siblings about the fact that Scott was gay, because he had figured it out a long time ago, although he had never had it confirmed and just guessed. The fact that Scott had never dated or even looked at any girl at all had been his first clue, but he hadn't really known for sure until Scott had just confirmed it a few minutes ago.

"So what's the story?" asked Henry genuinely curious.

"Well," Scott said as he tried to figure out how to tell his two brothers and one sister about the world of vampires. "I suppose it goes back really too when I was about 14 or so. I knew back then that I should've started showing an interest in girls at least by 16, but every time I looked at what I knew intellectually was a very pretty girl I didn't get the normal reaction that most boys my age did. At first I just figured I was a late bloomer and that eventually I would really start to notice how pretty and attractive girls were and want to date some of them, but by the time I was 16 that still hadn't happened. It really took me awhile to figure out that I would never look at a gorgeous girl the way most of my classmates did and that I would only think of them as friends. It was at about the same time that I started to get the kind of reaction you would expect from looking at girls from looking at handsome boys instead.

"It was that summer as I'm sure you remember that mom and dad started throwing every available girl around my age that they knew at me and I didn't know it at the time they secretly feared that I was indeed gay even though I wasn't sure myself at that time. I really didn't figure out that I was interested in boys until I was 17 and it took me awhile to really accept that I would never like girls the same way that my classmates did."

Scott went on to explain the rest of his story to his three siblings and about how his parents had wanted him to sign a marriage contract.

"Here I was just barely graduated from high school and wanting to go to college, but our parents wanted me to get married just because they feared that I never would. When I refused they told me I had a week to think about it and that if I didn't sign they would disown me and throw me out on my ear and so I decided it was best to just run away instead."

"Our parents actually wanted you to marry at barely 18 just because they secretly feared you were gay?" asked Alisa if in astonishment and Bryon couldn't really blame her for her reaction in the least.

"They did and they sprang it on me on my birthday too," Scott confirmed.

"I never believed that our parents had it in them to be so cruel to you just because they secretly feared that you were gay. They never even bothered to mention it to you or talk to you about it before they went to such extreme measures," Alisa said indigent on her bother's behalf.

"You know how our parents were, Alisa," Henry told his sister putting a calming hand on her shoulder. "Appearances were everything to them."

"I know that," Alisa said calming down a little, "but to do that to their own son just makes me so mad that I'm almost sorry they got in that car crash because now I can't give them a piece of my mind."

Bryon snickered at that and then explained when the three looked at him. "I had that very reaction myself after Scott told me his story as I wanted very much to come to Melrose and give his parents a piece of my mind for what they had done to their own son and now with them dead I am denied that opportunity." Actually I wanted to rip the both of them to shreds and torture them for a month or two for what they did to my mate, but it isn't like I can tell Scott's brothers and sister that, at least not yet.

"I sympathize," Alisa told him sincerely.

"It does explain though why they never told us the reason they disowned Scott in the first place as they knew how close we were and were probably afraid of our reactions," Jason pointed out logically.

"They should have been," Alisa responded tartly as she was still quite upset about the whole thing. "You would think they would love their son enough to not care about his sexual orientation and they never had anything, but suspicions in any case or knew he was gay for a fact."

"There are a lot of people in the world that I like that though," Bryon said. "I've come across very similar reactions to your parents quite a few times. Luckily when my parents found about the fact that I was gay, just recently actually, they didn't care one way or the other just so long as I was happy."

"And Bryon's parents have accepted me into their family like I was their long lost child. When they heard my story they were just as upset as Bryon was and wanted to come here and give our parents a lecture about love and understanding. They genuinely don't care that me and Bryon are together or that we got married and in fact threw quite nice wedding for us."

"And why weren't we invited?" Alisa asked indigently.

"Because at that time when we got married, as far as I knew anyway, our parents were still alive and they never would have allowed you to come without disowning you like they did me."

"Well, yes, that's true," Alisa admitted. "When did you get married anyway?"

"Just a little bit over two years ago," Bryon answered.

"Everybody was of age except Jason that is, but we would never could have come anyway because that was about a year after we discovered that Julia had leukemia."

"We should've tried to come if you had contacted us," Henry said with a snort. "Our so loving parents were apparently involved in something very shady and they didn't leave us a blessed dime, which is why it's been so hard to pay all Julia's medical bills. It was just a good thing that Alisa and I were of age so there was no children services and Jason just stayed with us as we became his legal guardians until he came of age."

"I'm sorry I wasn't here when Julia became so ill," Scott said remorsefully.

"It's not like our parents would've allowed you to hang around us, Scotty, even if you had been here," Jason told his older brother. "I'm sure they would have raised a godawful stink about your presence and made sure that you didn't get to see Julia at all if you had shown up."

"I know you're right, but I still feel incredibly guilty for not being here when you guys needed me the most," Scott said. "When Bryon and I came into town because I wanted to see how you guys were doing I was shocked to discover that Julia had one of the most deadly diseases known and that it was in stage III."

"Before you found that out you weren't planning on telling us you were here at all were you," Alisa asked. "At least that's what Henry told us when he came upstairs."

"I wasn't, no," Scott admitted. "I just wanted to make sure you were happy before Bryon I moved on."

"Why didn't you want to come and see us, especially once you found out that our parents had died in a car crash?" asked Jason.

"There are certain things about my life now that I didn't want to have to tell you," Scott explained, "but with Julia so sick and in all probability going to die sometime in the next couple of months Bryon and I decided that coming to see you might be a good idea after all."

"What kind of things about your life did you not want to tell us?" asked Alisa. "Does it have something to do with the fact that you're skin is as cold as ice now? Or the fact that your skin is so white you look like the walking dead? Or the fact that you and Bryon have yet to remove your sunglasses, even though the sun has long since gone down and you are inside?"

"Alisa!" Henry exclaimed shocked at his sister's rude behavior.

"It's alright," Bryon said snickering a little finding Alisa's observations very funny. "Your sister has actually hit the nail on the head in a way."

"What do you mean?" asked Henry his tone indicating he was very curious as did his emotions.

"Well, I know this is going to be hard to believe and I don't want you to panic…," Bryon began.

"What do you mean panic?" asked Jason as if trying to put the clues together. "Scott doesn't look like his old self anymore he still looks like Scott, but not quite…"

It was Henry who finally said, "It's as if all the imperfections that all humans have been burned away, but by what?"

"That's very clever of you Henry to notice that," Scott told his brother with genuine respect in his voice. "You're right in the fact that all the imperfections that I had have now been burned away."

"But what did it?" asked Alisa. "What have you been through all by yourself with no family to support you and help you through whatever it was?"

"I did have a family to support me," Scott corrected. "Bryon's family was with me all the way and there's no way you could have helped me through what happened to me in any case."  
"Are you ever going to tell us what you went through?" asked Jason curiously.

Scott sighed and said, "You remember those books Henry, Julia and I used read about vampires when we were kids?"

"You aren't serious," Henry exclaimed catching onto Scott's meaning immediately and also beginning to panic until Bryon used his talent to make him calm down as the last thing they needed was Scott's siblings panicking.

"I'm afraid so."

Jason and Alisa looked back and forth between Bryon, Scott and Henry not yet having figured out what was going on.

"What aren't you supposedly serious about?" asked Alisa finally, "and why did you respond I'm afraid so," Alisa added looking at Scott and then at Henry.

"Henry, figured it out," Scott said as calmly as possible. "I mentioned those books about vampires that we used to read for a reason you know. Don't you remember how the three of us used to imagine what the life of a vampire would be like if they were actually real and not just fantasy? How Julia, Henry and I used to imagine what it would be like to drink blood instead of eating food and what it would be like to be immortal and never have to worry about growing old."

"Scott, I think you're just going to have to tell her," Bryon said finally when Alisa still looked confused but then she hadn't been interested in reading those books unlike her three older siblings who had been on a huge fantasy kick for most of their teenage years.

"Alisa, Jason, Bryon and I are vampires," Scott finally said.

Alisa and Jason nearly choked and their disbelief was so strong in their emotions that Bryon had trouble feeling their emotions until he got some relief when he sent out some calm before all three of Scott's siblings began to really panic.

"It's true," Bryon said once he had recovered himself significantly. "Vampires really do exist."

"Prove you're not just trying to scam us," Jason suggested with such a skeptical tone in his voice that Bryon nearly laughed out loud and Scott actually did. "Good old Jason, always demanding proof."

"Alright, but just so you know if Scott and I had really wanted to hurt you then you wouldn't be able to get away and you all would be dead by now, but you're not because Scott loves you despite that he is now a vampire," Bryon said before standing up and taking off his sunglasses, Scott doing the same.

Henry, Alisa and Jason stared at Bryon's and Scott's eyes and then Jason said his voice still very skeptical, "Those could be contacts."

"And tell me how you would get the same colored red eyes when Scott had gray eyes before he was turned and there's no color I am aware of that would turn somebody who had gray eyes into red, but since you demand more proof it shall be provided."

"Scott, would you go and pick up that chair that Jason is sitting in, just to prove how strong you are now as you never would have been able to pick up that chair with Jason still sitting in it if you were still completely human."

Scott did as ordered and gently leaned down and placed his hand around one of the legs of the chair that Jason was sitting in and slowly lifted it gently above his head not even particularly straining while Jason just gaped at him in astonishment from where he was sitting because he knew that between him and the chair his older brother had just lifted at least 250 pounds above his head without a single hint of effect.

Henry and Alisa also gaped at Scott from where they sat on the couch, but didn't make a sound as they were afraid to disturb Scott's concentration as they didn't want him to drop the chair and for Jason to be hurt.

Scott gently lowered the chair back to the floor and then stood up once the chair was back where it had been just a minute or so ago. "Does that prove that we are different from you?"" asked Bryon, "or do you need more?"

"I believe it," Jason said slowly shaking a little as he realized that he was sitting in the room with two vampires, but as Bryon had pointed out just a few minutes ago if Bryon and his brother were looking to hurt him and his two siblings they would already be dead.

"Good, then maybe we can get back to the reason we came to see you in the first place," said Bryon. "Not to mention revealed ourselves to you."

"Why did you come see us?" Henry asked calmly. "From all those books we read as teenagers keeping vampires a secret was pretty important and I would think that since vampires aren't just fiction and really do exist that it would be important that nobody knows that you were real."

"You're right," Bryon said with a nod of respect in Henry's direction. "Most of what those books are about is pure rubbish, but occasionally the humans who write about our kind as if they know anything, get something right, which doesn't happen very often."

"What Bryon means," Scott explained as calmly as possible, "is that we don't turn into bats, we don't sleep in coffins since we can't sleep at all actually, nor can we be killed by a mere piece of wood, yes, we have souls and lastly not all of our kind are so evil that they don't care about who they kill so long as their desires are sated. None of that rubbish by authors is true in the least."

"I'm not sure where that rubbish originally come from actually as it was centuries ago and authors all over the world have been writing about vampires ever since and the way they're often portrayed in the movies is just ridiculous," Bryon added. "It is absolutely utter nonsense."

"In a way it's a good thing because it makes vampires seem less dangerous if some human actually figures out what we are," Scott pointed out logically.

"That's true but it doesn't mean it isn't still damn annoying, but we digress and we really do need to get to the real reason we revealed to you what we are," Bryon said.

"When I heard about Julia and how sick she was Bryon and I both decided together that the best thing would be to turn her into a vampire like us as that will take care of the cancer and she'll be perfectly healthy again, but the thing is with all the security not to mention the power backup generators at the hospitals nowadays we couldn't really kidnap Julia in order to turn her into a vampire without a lot of problems so that's why we came to you."

"So you came to us because when you heard how deathly ill our sister was you decided that you did want to let her die and want to turn her into a vampire so that wouldn't happen?" asked Alisa.

"That's basically accurate," Bryon agreed. "The process to change someone into a vampire would burn away all impurities, including the cancer, which is why Scott looks so different because when he was changed the transformation burned away any imperfections until you get what you see before you."

"So what do you want from us?" asked Henry who wasn't sure he wanted his sister to turn into a blood drinking vampire, but on the other hand wasn't it the better option than having her dead?

"Well, we were hoping that you could get Julia released from the hospital and tell the doctors that you want to take her home so she can die in her own bed, with her family around her since they can't really do anything for her," Scott explained.

"After that is accomplished, we will be taking all of you away from here to a place where you all can be transformed without any interruptions."

"What do you mean all of us?" asked Jason catching on to Bryon's words almost immediately.

"Well, the thing is that now that you know about vampires we can't leave you aware of that fact and the only two options available to you is to either kill you, or change you into what we are," Bryon explained quite calmly. "Those are your only two choices for just like humans do we have laws that must be obeyed except in our case if our rulers find out we have broken our main law it would not only mean death for Scott and me, but for all of you as well as our rulers take very seriously the threat of any humans knowing about our kind unless they are either changed or killed soon afterwards."

"And I really don't want to kill any of you since you are my family and I still love you very much, despite me being a vampire that drinks blood now," Scott added looking pleadingly at his three siblings.

"Actually Scott and I are quite capable of forcing the issue if we have to," Bryon added. "We don't really want to have to force you to go through the change into vampires, but since it would upset Scott and rip him to shreds emotionally if you were to be killed because you now have knowledge that you shouldn't, especially by his mate I'm afraid that means that I will force you if I must. Both Scott and I thought, however that it would be better to put the option before you first and let you decide even if the end result is going to be the same."

"What did you mean when you called Scott your mate?" asked Alisa somewhat curiously not seeming at all upset about Bryon's ultimatum.

"Why don't you explain it, Scott," Bryon said calmly.

"Alright," Scott agreed. "It's like this, vampires are creatures of instinct, especially when it comes to certain things like hunting, but they also instinctively know when they have found their true mate, the person, whether human or vampire, they are meant to be with for the rest of their existences. A mate in human terms is a soulmate, somebody that just completes you. Bryon told me once he had informed me about the world of vampires that he knew I was his mate the minute he looked into my eyes as he felt very protective of me, which is very unusual for a vampire considering I was human at the time and most vampires consider humans as nothing but a food source. It was not much later when Bryon touched my bare skin and little sparks of lightning danced along where he had that it was confirmed as that always happens when a vampire finds the person they are meant to be with always. We dated for about a month before Bryon decided that it was time to tell me what he was and what his family was so in order to do that he brought me to the Whitlock home so he could tell me that he was a vampire and in fact that his whole family was."

Scott paused for a second as if gathering his thoughts, but finally he continued, "When I found out what Bryon and his whole family were I panicked and fainted, but what I didn't know at the time was that Bryon had half expected my reaction and caught me before I hit the floor, so I didn't even end up with a bump on the back of my head or a headache.

"Bryon was panicking as I woke up within a few minutes and could hear his frantic words to his parents, but I didn't let anybody know I was awake so that I could listen to the conversation going on around me. Bryon calmed down when his father Jasper assured him that I had just fainted and that I would be fine as soon as I awoke. Jasper has been around much longer than Bryon has and so knows the human world a lot better."

"I was so panicked that I hadn't noticed that Scott's heartbeat was sped up, which indicated that he was indeed awake as your heart slows down when you're either asleep or knocked unconscious," Bryon said remembering that time vividly.

"Jasper had though and shot me an amused look as soon as I opened my eyes," Scott laughed as he remembered. "When I was pretending to be unconscious I listened to Bryon, his twin sister Melodie and his parents discuss the fact that I would indeed be alright, without even a headache thanks to Bryon catching me before I banged my head on the floor. As I listened to that conversation I came to the sudden realization that Bryon had had plenty of opportunities to drain me dry for a meal or just kill me and be done with it and so had his parents and sister, but instead they were taking care of me and showing genuine concern for my unconscious condition.

"I found out later, about three weeks later actually, that if I were to die, during the transformation for example, that Bryon would soon follow me into death since one mate cannot live without his other half once he or she has been discovered. During that three week period though I worried constantly that Jasper and Bella would just eventually kill me because they wanted Bryon to get married to some nice vampire girl someday and it didn't help that I wasn't used to the fact that some people vampires or humans just accept gay relationships. Bryon's parents genuinely didn't care whether their son was gay or not and he was afraid to tell them for a long time since he knew what a lot of humans thought of a gay couple, but his parents willingly accepted me from the first, even though I didn't realize it at the time. One day about three weeks after I had met Bryon's parents and was living with them actually, Jasper called me into his office and I thought here it begins and Jasper is going to tell me that they wouldn't accept me and Bryon being together and that they are going to kill me now since I can't be let go with what I knew about vampires."

Scott fell silent for a moment looking nostalgic. "I discovered that that was the last thing on their minds as Jasper and Bella presented me with a ring box that when I opened it had the Whitlock crest inside and Jasper explained that the crest that he and Bella created is only worn by members of the Whitlock family and I was now a part of because I was Bryon's mate.

"I asked both Jasper and Bella that wouldn't they like Bryon to get married to some nice vampire girl someday and that was when they explained to me that the mate bond was sacred and that if I were to die Bryon would follow me soon after. They told me very calmly that being gay really doesn't mean anything in the vampire world, since vampires can't normally have children unless they do it the traditional way which means biting a human and injecting their venom into that human's bloodstream. After they are finished their transformation they would be considered that vampire's child since it would be that vampire's venom running through their bodies."

Scott's three siblings listened in utter fascination as Scott and Bryon told them all about the world of vampires and also about what Scott has been through in the last few years. Sure all three of the younger Blackwoods were still a little bit frightened of the future facing them as they knew they would be turned into vampires whether they wanted to be or not, but on the other hand they were no longer frightened of Scott or Bryon at all despite the fact they were vampires because Bryon in particular had had plenty of time to just drain all three of them dry and leave their corpses for somebody to find, but he hadn't and in fact seemed like a genuinely nice guy, vampire or not, and it was obvious to the three siblings that they're older brother adored Bryon which spoke in his favor as far as they were concerned.

"Could you explain something to three of us?" Henry asked tentatively looking directly at Bryon."

"If I can," Bryon said calmly.

"In your story Scott referred to the fact that the traditional way to make a vampire is to inject a human with you venom, is this correct?"

"Yes," Bryon said quite calmly.

"If biting someone is the traditional way to make a vampire what other way is there as I'm assuming that a vampire can't have children biologically."

"Normally you would be right," Bryon admitted, "but when it comes to my family what is normal for a vampire doesn't really count for a hill beans."

"Would you care to explain that?" Jason asked as he carefully looked at Bryon and then Scott noticing that they were holding hands as if in silent support of each other.

"Sure," Bryon agreed and told them all about how his parents had been in Greece and discovered an old shrine and what had happened after they had cleaned it off.

"So you really are the real son of your parents and not just somebody they bit in order to have a family," Jason commented in utter fascination.

"Yep, and so all my siblings," Bryon said with a slow, lazy grin that had all three of Scott's siblings practically charmed out of their socks even though Bryon wasn't really doing it on purpose in this case.

"Bryon," Scott said the amusement in his voice quite clear, "turn down the charm will you or you'll have my brothers and sister panting after you like three dogs in heat."

"Whoops!" Bryon said his grin disappearing causing the three younger Blackwoods to return to normal although they were all highly embarrassed at their reactions. "I didn't really mean to do that."

"There's no reason to be embarrassed," Scott told all three of his younger siblings. "When a vampire turns on the charm they can get a human to do anything they want whether it is against that human's better judgment or not as something just shorts circuits within their brain temporarily. Normally that means the human is going to be dead shortly afterwards because they're going to be drained of their blood, but not always," Scott explained. "In this case Bryon wasn't trying to deliberately charm you and I don't believe he knew that him smiling like that would cause you to have that reaction. So back to the reason we originally came and decided to reveal ourselves to you."

"Before we answer that could you tell us what the life of the vampires is really like," Alisa asked a little tentatively and her two brother nodded showing that they were interested a well.

"I would be happy to," Bryon said. "Scott can chip in whenever he has something to add to what I'm going to tell you, but since I have been a vampire much longer than he has it is best that I tell you about the world you are about to enter into. Being a vampire can be very lonely a lot of the time, simply because you can't have any human friends, for quite a few reasons like because they are scared of you instinctively or because they would eventually notice that you don't age while they did or because they would eventually notice that you don't eat human food. With my family though there has always been a lot of difference between us and just a single vampire wandering around from place to place as we did have the company of our siblings or our parents whenever we wanted it, well those that weren't out traveling the world anyway. Still even with all the people around it could be quite lonely at times, but also our family really knows how to have fun to..." Bryon and went on to explain all about the fun and games that had been instituted. "The thing is that having a mate makes all the difference because I haven't been bored once since Scott and I found each other a couple of years ago and now I finally understand why my parents have always seemed so happy just so long as they are together no matter how much tedium there is in their lives."

"So," Henry began slowly as he put the facts together from what Bryon had told the three of them. "The downsides to all this is that one we'll have to drink blood in order to keep ourselves alive, two we won't ever age from the time of the transformation, three we can't ever really have friends that are human because they would either avoid us or began to notice that we were different, is that at all accurate?"

"Pretty much," Bryon admitted, "there are other minor things as well that are downsides to the vampire life, but you know you can also count not aging as a good thing as well as a bad."

"I suppose," Henry said not quite agreeing with Bryon, but not really disagreeing either.

"You know you really need to think of the upsides to the life of a vampire," Scott said speaking for the first time since Bryon had begun telling them what it was like to be one of their kind.

"Such as?" asked Jason.

"Well, for one thing you get to take off the streets some of those humans that would hurt other people. Even if they go to prison it is more than likely that once they got out they would go back to those same habits that they had had before they went in and yes the Whitlock family is very aware that these criminals, are human and that they should have a chance to supposedly repent, but 95% of them never do and simply go back to their way of life as soon as they are released from the human justice system."

All three younger Blackwoods had to acknowledge that their older brother had a very good point.

"Yes, it can be be a very lonely life, but it has its benefits too," Bryon said after a few minutes of thoughtful silence. "For one thing you are at the very top of the food chain and absolutely nothing can hurt you, except another vampire of course. Also you are at least twenty if not thirty times as strong as any human and you will be able to crush rocks into powder with no trouble at all, even once your newborn year is over."

"If we can crush rocks into powder, we won't have any trouble crushing human bones will we?" asked Henry with a certain gleam in his eyes.

"No, you, won't," Scott agreed. "I've done the same myself when this one guy called Bryon and I fagots and that made me so mad that I crushed the bones in his arm quite easily. It was later explained to me that since I am still young in vampire years and because a vampire's emotions are so much stronger then a humans I couldn't really control myself not that it mattered since he was going to be drained anyway. Prey very rarely escapes from a vampire and it only happens if one of our kind is interrupted at their meal, not that that happens to often, although it has been known to."

All three younger Blackwoods looked at each other and thought that Scott had overreacted to being called a fagot, but on the other hand if a vampires emotions were really that much stronger, and they had no reason to doubt that they were, learning to control your new much stronger emotions would take time, perhaps even years. Besides absolutely nobody would appreciate being called a nasty name from a loudmouthed bigot who should just have minded his own business in the first place.

"Alright the three of us are ready to discuss Julia," Henry said finally after looking at his two younger siblings who nodded in agreement.

"One thing you need to remember before we get started on that subject is that turning Julia into a vampire will save her life in a way. She will be able, to walk, talk and do everything she normally did when she was human and and only difference will be is that she will now be one of our kind and that comes with it's own particular pitfalls. Sure, she will have to drink blood, but you will all find that really that is just a natural thing for us vampires to do. Also if you really object to drinking human blood we discovered awhile ago that you could drink animal blood and survive off that, but there are some major differences."

"Like what?" asked Jason. "And why doesn't your family drink animal blood if it is enough to sustain you."

"Well with human blood when your full the searing in the back your throat goes away until you get thirsty again anyway," Bryon explained quite calmly, "while with animal blood that doesn't happen and you will always have a slight burn in the back of your throat no matter how much of that kind of blood you drink. Also if you do want to just drink animal blood it will be harder to learn to control around humans simply because the slight burning will affect you even more and humans will smell even more appetizing than if you were drinking what is normal for our kind at least that is what three of my siblings told the family when they switched. Also there is some new synthetic blood that the human scientists created and my parents got ahold of the recipe and it seems to work well and tastes similar to human blood, although it is thicker. You could probably live off that if you had to, but I believe you'll discover that once you are vampires that you will enjoy hunting up your own dinner."

All three Blackwoods absorbed this and somehow we knew that Bryon was speaking nothing but the truth although that might have mostly to do with the fact Scott was sitting by Bryon's side and they were positive that Scott would have said something if Bryon had to lied or omitted something even once.

"All right, we'll get Julia checked out of the hospital," Henry finally decided after looking at his two younger siblings. "I believe it is better to have her alive at least in some capacity, then dead and buried at the age of 22."

"That's exactly what I told Bryon not too long ago," Scott said trying not to look relieved at the decision. "I believe I told him that she was only 22 for heaven's sake and that she should still have most of her life in front of her and that she shouldn't be dying before she even really had a chance to live. I always intended to come back and visit you, when I was sure our parents weren't around to interfere, but as you know I never got the chance thanks to a chance meeting with Bryon."

"I know this is just kind of a minor problem compared to everything else," Jason said slowly, "but what about Julia's medical bills?"

Bryon and Scott looked at each other and then Scott said, "All Julia's medical bills have been taken care of and none of you will ever have to worry about money again."

"But that's way too much," Henry, Jason and Alisa all protested vehemently at the same time. "Julia's medical bills were in the hundreds of thousands of dollars."

"It's already taken care of," Bryon told the the three younger Blackwoods a little sternly, his tone brooking no argument, "and no we don't want to be paid back as that kind of money is really a drop in the proverbial bucket. My father has been around for centuries and he invested his money wisely and we have more than we could ever spend even if we all lived to be 10,000 years old."

"We knew in advance that you didn't have the money to pay Julia's medical bills thanks to our oh so loving parents being involved in something shady," Scott growled as he really wished his parents were still alive so that he could torture them for days or even longer.

Scott immediately calmed himself down when he saw his siblings reaction to his growling, which he knew could be quite menacing and said a little more calmly, "I'm sorry, but just thinking about our former parents really pisses me off."

"If you want my opinion you have every right to be pissed off," Alisa commented very calmly considering she had just seen her older brother growl like an animal and gnash his teeth in anger, although she could hardly blame him for his reaction since their parents had thrown their own flesh and blood out for unspecified reasons or they had been unspecified at the time Scott had disappeared.

"He does," Jason agreed. "What our parents did to you Scott was absolutely deplorable."

"And it wasn't exactly fair to the rest of us either. We lost our brother for years just because the people who gave birth to us suspected he was a little different and not because they actually had any proof," Henry said, "and even if they had it still isn't right as they just should have just accepted that Scott was never going to get married or have children of his own. He was after all still their son."

"And our brother," Alisa added.

"And our brother," Jason agreed.

"Thanks guys, your words mean a lot to me," Scott said trying to hold in his emotions, knowing he couldn't cry anymore, though he sure did feel like it.

"You'll always be our brother, Scott," Henry said, "whether or not you are now a vampire."

Bryon listened to the conversation in pleasure for it looked as if Scott's brothers and sister didn't care that Scott was now a vampire and in fact they were accepting the situation much better than he had expected them too.

"One thing I need ask and that is, is anybody going to miss you if you just kind of disappear into thin air?" asked Bryon.

"Probably not as we don't really have any close friends at least not anymore," Henry said. "I'm sure the police will investigate our disappearance, but if there's no sign of foul play there is nothing they can really do as they can't even issue a missing person's report without absolute proof that we were forced to leave against our will."

Bryon nodded in agreement for what Henry said was absolutely correct. There might be quite the hue and cry over the Blackwoods disappearances, but that would eventually die down after a few weeks or at most a few months. "Alright then it will just be a mystery of this little town as to why all the Blackwoods just suddenly disappeared along with their very sick sister Julia and we really need to get busy setting things up as the sooner we leave the better."

"Why?" asked Jason always curious.

"Because for one thing Scott and I don't want to be seen in this town at all and even though we have been here for a few days we didn't check into a hotel and we just kind of lurked around out of sight listening to people talk, which is how we discovered that Scott's sister was so sick in the first place," Bryon explained. "If any of the residents of Melrose saw two strangers around town and then you just suddenly upped and disappeared suspicions would immediately be on the strangers even if there wasn't any proof of foul play."

All three Blackwoods nodded as that made sense and it wasn't something that any of them had thought of.

"So here's what we are going to do—" Bryon added and went on to explain his plan as soon as he saw that they understood.

~~~Bryon and Scott~~~

It had been anything but easy, but Henry who was the oldest, next to Scott and Julia got his sister released into his care and even when the doctor protested Henry had stood firm and told Dr. Sinclair that he wanted his sister to spend the last few months of her life surrounded by familiar things, with her family around her, not stuck in some strange hospital bed.

Dr. Sinclair had really had no choice, but to sign Julia's release papers since Henry did have the right ask for the release of his sister at anytime

Julia had smiled weakly at her brother when she had learned that she was going home as she had been begging to die in her own bed and not in some strange hospital, but what she didn't know was that she was not going to die in the traditional sense, but be turned into a vampire instead.

Once they got back to the house however, Henry who had kept Julia distracted with small talk said just a couple of miles from home, "I have a surprise for you, Julia."

Julia who loved surprises asked weakly, but also as eagerly as her weakened body would allow, "What is it?"

"You'll just have to wait until we get home in a couple of minutes," Henry said, "but I promise it is something you are going to absolutely love."

"Henry Gregor Blackwood! You will tell me right this instant, you hear me!" Julia exclaimed weakly doing her best to sound threatening, but had so little energy that it only came out sounding frail and timid and made Henry wince as Julia didn't sound like herself at all and it broke his heart to see his sister so weak and unable to even use the bathroom without help.

"You'll see," Henry said with a smile for his sister refusing to budge.

Julia looked at her brother who was only younger then her by about two minutes plaintively, but Henry had this stubborn look on her face and whenever he did you wouldn't be able to get anything out of him until he was damn good and ready to tell you.

"Be patient, sis, we'll be home in just another minute," Henry said his tone a lot more gentle then it would ordinarily be.

Julia sighed and gave in as the truth of the matter was that she was really to weak to argue with Henry like she normally would have. She really had no choice, but to wait as calmly as possible, although having patience had never been something she was good at.

Luckily Henry had been right in his estimate and pulled into the driveway of the house they had both grown up in just a minute later.

Henry stopped the car as close to the house as possible and then got out and went to open his sister's door. Henry tried not to wince where Julia could see him as he really looked at his sister for the first time since he had come to pick her up at the hospital. Julia had lost so much weight that she was nothing more than skin and bones and her beautiful deep red hair had just started to grow back from where it had fallen out doing chemo therapy. Julia's hair, which had used to hang past her shoulders, was now only about three inches long and just barely hung down enough to cover the back of her head and it had definitely lost it's body and thickness hanging limply looking very scraggly.

"I look awful don't I?" asked Julia having seen Henry's reaction no matter how much he tried to hide it from her.

"No you look beautiful, sis," Henry assured her.

"Liar," Julia said laughing weakly.

"Am not," Henry protested as he lifted his sister gently into his arms making sure to shut the car door with this foot behind. "Let's get you inside, shall we?"

Julia didn't respond and simply laid her head on her brother's shoulder all pooped out by the sudden move from the hospital to the house she and her family had grown up in.

The front door to the house opened suddenly and Henry went inside grateful that he hadn't had to put Julia down in order to unlock the door. He should've known somebody would be watching for them and be ready to open the door so that he wouldn't have to.

"So what's this surprise you have for me?" asked Julia as soon as the front door had closed behind her and Henry. Henry walked over to the couch and put Julia down as gently as possible without responding and as soon as he had made sure that Julia was as comfortable there was a sudden movement and Scott stood before his sister trying not to show how dismayed he was at what he saw.

"Hey, sis," Scott said.

"Scotty!" Julia exclaimed reaching her arms and Scott gladly stepped into them and gave his sister a careful hug. "I missed you big brother," Julia said as she hugged Scott back as hard as she could, which wasn't very hard as she was just to weak.

"I missed you too, sis," Scott said. "I have a lot to tell you."

"I'm just glad I got a chance to see you and tell you goodbye, before I die," Julia interrupted looking sad.  
"You aren't going to die, sis," Scott told her sternly.

"I'm afraid I am, Scott," Julia I told her brother sadly. "The doctor estimated I had no more than a couple of months left, if that."

"Well you see, I have a way to solve your illness and make you healthy again," Scott began, but Julia interrupted him.

"How can you do that?" asked Julia without any hope in her voice as human science had yet to find a way to cure cancer although they were getting better at treating and diagnosing it.

"Henry why don't you go get Julia a late lunch as I'm sure she's hungry," Scott said giving Henry a significant look and Henry nodded.

"Don't bother Henry as I haven't been hungry in a long time as you well know," Julia protested, weakly.

Henry didn't respond, but simply disappeared into the kitchen without a word.

"Julia, I have a question to ask you," said Scott sitting down beside his sister on the couch his expression as well as his tone of voice intense.

"What's your question?" asked Julia with a quizzical expression in Scott's direction.

"Have you noticed anything different about me?" asked Scott.

Julia thought it was a very odd question coming from her brother, but then when she really thought about it she had noted several odd things about the brother she adored. Her body might be weak thanks to the disease, but her mind was still as sharp as a tack.

"Well, now that you mention it…" Julia began really thinking about Scott's question knowing that he had a reason behind asking it. "When I hugged you your skin felt as hard as stone and also ice cold without any warmth to it at all. Also you look different," Julia added studying her brother more closely then she had before. "Your skin is totally pale and not like it used to be."

"Anything else?" asked Scott.

"Well, you also look different," Julia said trying to find the words to describe just how different Scott looked from the brother she had known. "It's as if… all the imperfections that humans are born with have been somehow taken away."

Scott nodded letting Julia you know that she was on the right track so she continued, "I mean you still look basically like my brother Scott just even more gorgeous then when you left eight years ago. What caused all these changes? It can't be anything natural."

Before Scott could say a word Julia asked him quietly, "What have you become as I don't believe you are human any longer."

"What do you believe?" asked Scott his expression intent, but not giving Julia any clue as to what he was really thinking.

"I believe...no it's too far-fetched," Julia began then stopped as if afraid to say what she was really thinking.

"Tell me what you think, no matter how far-fetched it really is," Scott told her.

"Alright," Julia said looking directly into the brother's sunglass clad eyes, which was another strange thing come to think of it. That Scott had not removed his sunglasses even though he was inside was very strange indeed.

"I believe that you are a vampire," Julia said waiting for a reaction.  
"You are right on the money, sis," Scott told his younger sister quite calmly.

"But if you are my brother Scott, how did you become a vampire?" asked Julia not at all afraid as not only did she have a feeling that vampire or not her brother would never hurt her, but also the fact that she was already dying helped her have the courage to ask.

"You never have to be afraid of me, Julia," Scott told his sister. "I might be a vampire now, but I am still your brother and I still love you very much and therefore I would never hurt you or, Henry, Alisa or Jason. You are still my family and I still love you just as much as I did when I was still human and in fact I might even love you more than I did back then."

"So what you meant when you said that you had a way to save me from this leukemia that I've been fighting since I was 19 years old...what you were trying to tell me before I interrupted you was that you wanted my permission to turn me into a vampire just like you are now," Julia finished.

"That's it exactly," Scott agreed as calmly as possible. "I'm afraid that is the only way to save your life because human medicine has gone as far as it can and in this case it just wasn't enough. I really, really want you to accept my offer, because I don't want you to die Julia. You are only 22 for goodness sakes and you should have your whole life in front of you instead of fighting an insidious disease that has sapped your vitality."

Julia contemplated that for a moment and then asked the rather obvious question or at least it was obvious to her. "What about Henry, Alisa and Jason?"

"They'll be joining you as vampires," Scott told his sister calmly.

"Why, they aren't fighting for their lives from a deadly disease."

"It's really very simple sis," Scott told her. "You see the vampire world has laws and one of those laws is that no human can know that we exist unless they are either turned into vampires soon afterwards or they are killed, those are the only two options."

Julia thought about it and realized that it made a certain amount of sense so she nodded. "Can you tell me how you became a vampire? Were you hurt when you were living in the city?"

"No, nothing like that," Scott said. "You see Julia the reason I ran away in the first place is that our parents wanted me to sign a marriage contract with a girl who was a friend of the family's."

"Why would your parents want you to do that?" asked Julia in astonishment. "You were barely 18 for heaven sakes."

"Well, see that's the kicker," Scott said. "If you remember I didn't date at all during my high school years and that fact worried our parents a great deal because I had yet to show any interest in girls at all."

"Why would that worry mom and dad?" asked Julia.

"Because they secretly feared that I might be gay and so decided to force the issue. I'm sure you remember how they kept throwing every girl of marriageable age that they knew at me for over a year before they finally stopped."

Julia did indeed remember that time and she had wondered what her parents were really up to by throwing every kind of girl imaginable at her brother as if they were desperate to get him married off as soon as possible.

"So let me see if I understand you," Julia began. "Our parents secretly feared you were gay and they decided that the best option was to marry you off instead of just talking to you about it, is that accurate?"

"Yes," Scott said bowing his head a little. "They gave me an ultimatum. I would either sign the marriage contract or they would disown me, which turned out not to be a bad thing at all."

Julia sputtered at her brother's explanation feeling so totally indigent and no matter how weak she was wanted to beat the crap out of her parents, but the only problem with that was, was that they were already dead and beyond her retribution, which was a genuine shame.

"Hey, little sis, calm down," Scott told her. "You mustn't get yourself all worked up."

"Why not?" asked Julia trying my best to contain the rage.

"Because for one thing I don't think your body can take your anger at the moment and for another thing what our parents did turned out to be a very good thing."

"How can you say that!" exclaimed Julia as angry as Scott could ever remember seeing her.

"I can say that because I met someone and that someone became the center of my life very quickly."

Before Julia could ask who her brother was talking about Bryon having been listening to the conversation from all the way upstairs entered the den.

"Julia this is Bryon and as I'm sure you can tell he is a vampire as well. He's actually the one that changed me into what I am," Scott said as he put an arm around Bryon's shoulders and Bryon pulled Scott close to him and gave him a kiss on the top of the head. Julia watched these actions and she could very easily tell that her brother and Bryon loved each other very much.

Julia stared intensely at Bryon and Bryon to his credit refused to look away and finally Julia lowered her head first.

"Would you care to explain to me exactly why you turn my brother into one of the undead?" Julia asked her stare intense, her tone as sharp as a sword blade.

Bryon nodded and went and sat in a chair across from where Julia was sitting up against the armrest of the couch in the den. "It's like this," Bryon said and began to explain all about mate bonds and how a vampire can't live without his mate once they have found each other.

"So, you're telling me that once you found out that Scott was your mate that you wouldn't be able to live without him and that once he died—even if that wasn't until old age—you would have killed yourself just because mates can't live without each other, is that it all accurate?"

"Pretty much, yes," Bryon agreed. "In any case you never would have even known where Scott was or what he was doing or even if he was still alive if it hadn't been for the fact that you were so ill. The vampire world only has three laws and the main one as well as the most important of them is that no human can know that our kind in exist. If a human does find out either on accident or they are told there are only two options after that and those are to die or get turned into a vampire."

"That makes sense," Julia admitted, "and Scott did just tell me the same thing a few minutes ago."

"I'm glad you think so," Bryon told her with a grin that made Julia's heart beat faster within her weakened body as a result. "And yes he did as I heard him from where I was standing at the top of the stairs, but that doesn't mean it doesn't bare repeating."

"Bryon!" Scott told his mate in an exasperated tone. "Turn down the charm why don't you!"

"Whoops! Sorry!" Bryon said looking contrite.

Julia's heart finally stopped beating double time and left her body feeling even weaker then before. It was almost as if she'd had a fever that had finally burned itself out, but left her feeling like a washed up dishrag in the process.

"Whoa! You sure can turn on the charm, can't you?" asked Julia feeling very dizzy.

"Sorry," Bryon apologized again. "It wasn't intentional I assure you, but that's how vampires lure their prey in order to drain them for a meal most of the time anyway."

"So, it is kind of vampire thing," Julia said seeing how easy it would be for a vampire to lure their prey in order to drain them if all vampires could turn up the charm like that, there wasn't any human that would be able to resist following them around like a very well trained dog. The ironic thing was that Bryon hadn't even been trying to charm her at the time and it had been accidental which told her that if a vampire really put their mind to it they could get a human to do absolutely anything they wanted with no trouble at all.

"Something like that," Bryon agreed lazily.

"So sis, are you going to let Bryon and I take you, Henry, Alisa and Jason somewhere where all four of you will be transformed into vampires and start a whole new life away from here? Away from all the pain, the heartache and your weak human body, which in a way has betrayed you by letting you getting cancer in the first place," asked Scott. "Please, say yes, Julia! You are my sister, I love you and I don't want you to die!"

"Scott, calm down," Julia told her older brother reaching out a hand and caressing Scott's cheek affectionately. "I love you to and always have, even when when our parents tried to convince all of us that you had done something so terrible that they had had to throw you out for the good of the family. They made you sound like a bank robber or an arsonist or something."

Bryon snorted at that and looked murderous, which Julia could hardly blame him for as she had often felt the same towards her parents after Scott had disappeared overnight from their lives. His name was not allowed to be mentioned in the Blackwood house after the elder Blackwoods had disowned him. After awhile it was as if her older brother Scott had ceased to exist at all. Oh she and her siblings still discussed their brother and wondered how he was doing whenever their parents were off elsewhere, but they had all been careful to never mention Scott's name in front of their parents ever again.

"Quit changing the subject, Julia and answer my question," Scott told his sister.

Julia sighed and then said, "Can I ask you something before I answer?"

"Of course, you can ask me anything you want and I will do my best to answer as honestly as possible."

"Would you turn me into a vampire against my will, if I were to tell you that I'd rather die?"

Scott took awhile to answer as his emotions were very strong and trying their best to send him into a panic at the thought of his sister's permanent death, but he managed to clamp down on those impulses with difficulty that after a minute it got easier as he felt his mate's power swirling around him calming him down considerably.

Scott shot Bryon a grateful look and then said more calmly then he had expected to be able to.

"If you did say, you didn't want to join me as a vampire, which I'm hoping you don't, then no I wouldn't force you. Just so you know though it would almost literally kill me to watch you die inch by inch when there was something I could do to prevent it as vampire's emotions are at least ten times as strong as a humans and as a relatively young vampire I still have trouble controlling them sometimes. Even if you were to die though Henry, Alisa and Jason will still have to be changed into vampires as they aren't on the verge of death like you are and Bryon and I simply can't leave them human with their knowledge of the vampire world. Do you really want all your siblings to mourn you not just for the next eighty or ninety years, but for forever?" Scott asked his sister as calmly as possible. "A vampire is incapable of ever forgetting anything ever as our species have perfect memories. We never forget our times of happiness, joy, loneliness, sadness, contentment or pain as everything that happens to us is etched into our memories forever."

"You're just being dramatic," Julia weakly protested.

"A little," Bryon told Julia speaking for the first time in quite awhile, "but what Scott has told you is also very true, for we never forget anything we have heard, seen, felt, touched or smelled. All our kind have what is known as eidetic memories just like a small percentage of humans do. The only differences is that humans lives are very short and vampires live forever so long as we aren't torn apart and our body parts burned. I, Scott, Henry, Alisa and Jason would never stop mourning your death, that in the short or long run is really unnecessary. All of us would walk around with holes in our hearts that would never be completely filled because you were dead and gone and not there to fill them. Also think of the fact that while I would mourn you, my pain would be nothing compared to Scott's or your other two brothers and your sister who have known you all their lives and have loved you for all that time."

Julia considered that for a long moment and then reluctantly nodded in agreement. "Why don't you tell me what the life is like and then let me think about it for awhile," Julia suggested.

Bryon shot Scott a look and so Scott curbed his impatience withholding his protest and said as calmly as possible. "Okay, I'll tell you what I've been doing for the last eight years since you last saw me, while you just sit back, relax and eat the lunch that I'm sure Henry has prepared for you by now."

Henry appeared from the kitchen as if on cue and set down a tv tray with a bowl of chicken noodle soup, a sandwich and chips along with Julia's favorite drink setting it down across his sister's lap.

"I'm not hungry," Julia protested.

"Humor me," Scott told. "I'll tell you what I've been doing for the last eight years as you eat, but I won't if you don't at least try to get something into your stomach it's as simple as that."

"Alright, but you better be prepared for the consequences as I tend to throw everything back up, which is one reason I have not been eating," Julia said finally giving in picking up the spoon that Henry had placed on the tray beside the soup bowl.

Hmm! That was good, Julia admitted if only in her thoughts. Chicken noodle soup was her favorite and Henry had known that, the scoundrel! Julia laughed if only mentally.

Julia ate slowly as Scott and Bryon took turns telling her all about life as a vampire, which didn't sound to bad, Julia admitted as she ate another spoonful of soup. Sure the drinking blood thing didn't sound to pleasant, but on the other hand who knew how she would think once she was a vampire. Scott and Bryon both made it sound as if drinking blood was not only the most natural thing in the world, but that it was also scrumptious. Perhaps it was if you were a vampire, Julia thought trying to see it from their point of view. Come to think of it she wouldn't even have to hunt humans unless she chose to as she could just live off that new synthetic blood instead or maybe animal. Also there were a lot of advantages to being a vampire, never getting old or having wrinkles among them, not that she would live to even think about having wrinkles if she remained human. She would be super strong, fast as lightning, see, hear and smell about 1000 times better than she did now and have impenetrable skin that not much would be able to injure. The kicker though as Scott would say was that she would never again get sick with any kind of disease, not even a cold, much less cancer. The cancer that had overtaken her body would be gone once she was through her transformation and she would be completely healthy forever.

Julia sighed internally making sure that she didn't actually make an actual sound and thought if only to herself, that she would love to have had children someday, but she wouldn't be around long enough to get married and have children since the doctor had cautioned her that she only had a couple of months at most before she kicked the bucket.

Really she didn't have any choice in the matter, not really anyhow. Oh she could just let the cancer do what it would and kill her in just a few months time, or she could take a chance and let Scott and Bryon turn her and her siblings into vampires. Even if she did die her three siblings would still become vampires anyway if Scott and Bryon were being honest with her and that would mean that all four of her siblings, Scott included, would mourn her for the rest of their time on this Earth, which could be thousands of years.

"You aren't anything like the books Scott, Henry and I used to read when we were teenagers," Julia commented finally as soon as she had put down her partly eaten sandwich, unable to eat another bite as her stomach had started to not only feel very full, but also a little queasy as she hadn't eaten so much in a very long time.

Bryon burst out laughing at that and it was a sound that was surprisingly full of actual humor and although Julia was surprised she had to smile because if she could get Bryon to laugh like that then really vampires were human in many ways, even if there were some very large differences between them like the drinking blood thing.

"Sorry, but you really tickled my funny bone," Bryon said as soon as he managed to quit laughing, although he still chuckled.

"I noticed," Julia said dryly but with a twinkle in her eyes. She decided right then and there that she liked Bryon a whole lot despite the fact that he was blood drinking vampire and the one that had changed Scott into one as well. "I wonder why?" she added teasingly.

"Well, for one thing the vampires in every novel I've ever had the displeasure of reading are so off-base that they're almost unrecognizable from the real thing. About the only thing various authors got right is the fact that we drink blood, that our eyes are bloodred and that we don't age, everything else is balderdash."

"So you won't turn to dust if you go into the sunlight? Or turn into a vampire bat?" asked Julia teasing Bryon a little, which Scott thought was a good sign.

Bryon laughed at that and shook his head smiling slightly. "No and no, also we don't sleep in coffins because we don't need to sleep, and no a wooden stake wouldn't damage us even as if we didn't move out of the way there's no way a mere piece of wood is going to get through our impenetrable skin."

"Why don't you tell me about your parents and your brothers and sisters," Julia suggested. "I assume that as vampires you can't have children so how does someone become a vampire?"

"Well, it's like this," Bryon explained. "In order to create a vampire from a human one of our kind must bite a human in at least one of their arteries injecting as much venom as possible into their bloodstream instead of draining them dry, which isn't as easy as it sounds because when a vampire first tastes a humans blood all they want to do is continue to drain that blood until the human is dead and you must have incredible control to turn someone into one of the undead. I've only done it once and that was when I changed Scott and I had my father standing by just in case so that he could stop me from killing your brother if I couldn't control myself and started to drain him instead of change him. It was an incredibly difficult thing to do, but I managed to change him and not kill him like I half feared I might."

"I had faith in you," Scott told Bryon caressing his cheek. "You just had to have faith in yourself that you could do it."

Julia watched to display of how Scott intimately caressed Bryon's cheek and how Bryon responded and realized suddenly that the two really were deeply in love with each other.

"Alright, you've convinced me," Julia said finally breaking Bryon and Scott out of their own little world. "I'll do it. I'll let you change me into a vampire."

"You will?" asked Scott looking so incredibly relieved and Julia felt ashamed of herself for worrying her brother who had been so concerned about her once he had found our she was so sick.

"I will," Julia said nodding decisively.

"Thank you," Bryon told Julia sincerely looking deeply relieved and Julia suddenly realized that if she had said no and she had died when she could've been saved Scott never would have gotten over it and Bryon wouldn't have been able to do anything about the hole his mate was carrying around a hole in his heart, because even vampires couldn't bring someone back from the dead.

"You're welcome," Julia told him sincerely feeling that she had made the right decision.

~~~Bryon and Scott~~~

"Welcome, welcome," Bella greeted her two sons, as well as Scott's four siblings at the door to the house in Houston Texas. Julia, who was very weak was being carried very gently and tenderly by Scott as if she weighed almost nothing and to him she did not, Julia knew. "Come in and be comfortable."

It had taken some doing, since the four younger Blackwoods didn't have passports that were any good since an officially issued one was only good for ten years and their's were four years out of date, and so Bryon had bribed the airport officials with €50,000 each to not bother to check his four siblings passports and also to never mention that they had seen them at all. The passport employees that Bryon had bribed had all agreed, for €50,000 was nothing to sneeze at and Bryon had used his empathic talent to make sure they were being truthful before he handed over the money. It had taken him and Scott half a million dollars spread among various employees of the airport to guarantee that the four Blackwoods would never be mentioned at all and if any of the airport employees were interrogated they would lie through their teeth and say they had never even heard of the Blackwoods much less ever seen them.

Half a million dollars of course meant absolutely nothing at all to him or Scott as it wouldn't even make a little dent in their bank accounts. It certainly helped that Bryon had his own private plane and so didn't have to worry about nosy airline attendants or dozens of passengers that smelled absolutely mouthwatering to two vampires.

Jason had been the one to ask why they couldn't just do the transformation here in the house they had been born and Bryon had very bluntly told him that the reason they couldn't be changed here was because for one thing it wasn't private enough and for another once they were injected with a vampire's venom they would be screaming from the pain for the entire three days until their transformation was complete. Lastly, but most importantly however, was that they needed a lot of privacy away from humans completely for their first couple of years as vampires, so that they could learn to control their bloodlust so that they would eventually be able to be around humans without revealing that they were vampires unless they wanted to.

Once Bryon had finished his rather blunt explanation Jason had looked as if he had been smacked upside the head and Bryon had immediately apologized sincerely for being so blunt, but the life of a vampire was all about secrecy and therefore very lonely at times.

"Besides you wouldn't want to make a meal off any of your neighbors now would you?"

Jason had gulped and shook his head vehemently in denial.

Bryon had also gently suggested that they gather up anything that they wanted to take with them that they didn't want to lose as they would not be able to return for a least a hundred years if not more.

Packing up really hadn't taken more then two or three hours or for all the Blackwoods decide on what they wanted to take with them including the clothes and pack everything into the trunk of Bryon's and Scott's rental SUV, which they had driven into town from where they had left it more then five miles out of town in the middle of the night when every resident of Melrose was in bed so that they wouldn't be seen.

Also they had taken Henry's car, ripped it apart with vampire strength and buried it where it was unlikely to ever be discovered just to make it look like Henry and his siblings had gone off on their own free will.

Henry hadn't been happy about losing his wheels, but he had understood that it was a necessary measure and that he couldn't taking his car with me to Houston where they were heading in any case.

"Thank you," Henry said politely. "Were sorry if this is an inconvenience for you and your husband."

"Oh it's not," Bella assured him with a sober expression. "We were just surprised when Bryon and Scott called us and told us what was happening. Jasper and I certainly understand Scott's need to check up on his family to make sure they were doing well as I know that leaving you four behind hurt him deeply. Scott and Bryon told us that they went to check up on you just to make sure you were happy that you never would have known they were there if it hadn't been for Julia who was in the last stage of leukemia. If all four of you had been at least content with your lives they would've left and Scott would have been assured that you were doing fine, but since that didn't happen…we find ourselves in a very unusual situation."

"What do you mean?" asked Jason staring at Bella who he thought was very beautiful and unfortunately she was already taken.

"Well, really the situation for a human anyway is that they are just bitten by a vampire and they don't really know what's happening to them. My family always been a little different and we prefer really to give the people we are going to change a choice. The two choices available aren't much I'll grant you, but at least it's better then just being bitten by some strange vampire without knowing what's happening at all."

"I believe I understand," Jason commented.

Bella looked at her sons and noticed that their eyes were almost all black, which meant that they hadn't eaten for awhile and she said very calmly, "Bryon, Scott, why don't you head down to the cellar and get yourself something to eat? I'll entertain your siblings until you get back."

Bryon and Scott nodded and disappeared so fast that it was almost like they had never been there are all.

"Doesn't it ever bother you to make a meal off of what used to be your own species?" asked Henry as he tried not to shudder in revulsion and curb his very active imagination about what was really going on down in the cellar.

"Not really," Bella told him calmly. "The humans we feed off aren't exactly the most sterling members of society if you catch my drift. They're criminals of one sort or another, drug dealers, muggers, rapists, murderers, your occasional bully that knocks his family or girlfriend around...humans like that don't deserve to continue on, so I consider what we do kind of a public service as we kind of cull out some of the bad eggs of society."

"Yes, Bryon and Scott did explain that you only went after people like that," Alisa said, "and yes they also explained that 95% of the criminals of society don't ever repent, but I'm still not sure I could actually hunt humans or even drain a human's blood."

"I can understand where you're coming from," Bella told Alisa very calmly. "I used to think the same as you, but I believe you'll find that once you are a vampire draining a human's life will seem totally natural and you won't have any qualms about doing it. A new vampire is almost like being a newborn baby, in a way, as you have to learn how to do things all over again. You'll have to learn to control your enhanced strength for example, as you'll crush everyday objects into powder if you aren't extremely careful. Also like a newborn, human baby your appetite will be out-of-control for at least the first couple years, if not longer and you'll have to feed often for a hungry vampire is a dangerous vampire. Really after awhile you probably won't remember most of your human life before you were turned at all as most vampires don't. Of course most of our kind are changed under rather violent circumstances so maybe that is one reason why most of them don't remember much of their human life before."

"Scott seems to remember a lot," Henry pointed out.

"Well Scott wasn't changed under violent circumstances either, nor was he injured in anyway and also he agreed to it, which probably made a difference. He had about two months to get used to the idea that he was going to become a vampire before he was turned so that may have had a lot to do with why he remembers more. I'm afraid we really don't have much to go on as to why some vampires remember more than others except for the fact that most of our kind were injured in some way or they had been assaulted and therefore their changes were rather violent."

Bella shrugged as if to say who knew.

Bryon and Scott returned just then and Henry immediately noticed that they had changed their clothes while they had been gone and that their eyes were now bloodred instead of almost black, which he took to mean that they were now full and no longer hungry.

"There now, you two look much better," Bella said as she saw Bryon and Scott entered the den. The bags beneath her sons eyes had disappeared and so had the black in the iris, which were now completely back to the normal red.

Thanks mom," Bryon said coming over and giving his mother a kiss on the cheek. "We feel better."

"Yeah, we needed that," Scott added. "We might've overindulged, a little before we headed to Melrose, but that doesn't mean that we weren't thirsty as that business in my old hometown took quite some time."

"So when are you going to start transforming us into vampires?" asked Julia her voice very weak.

"Well, you need to be turned as soon as possible, especially you Julia since you are so sick. The thing is that we will have to bite all of you within minutes of each other as we can't have any human heartbeats around as a newborn will likely attack anyone the minute they smell blood and hear your heartbeats. It won't matter one iota that any of you are Julia's family as it is nearly impossible for a newborn vampire to control their instincts. Newborn vampires are very irrational most the time I'm afraid and your instincts will be very strong to drain whoever it is that has that heartbeat and so they will take over. Even if you don't want to attack a human you will simply because you can't control your instincts yet."

"Where is dad, anyway?" asked Bryon who had expected to see his father before now.

"Jasper will be back shortly as he went to make some final preparations," Bella told her son.

As if Bella's words were a summons Jasper strode into the room his pose commanding instant attention.

"Scott, Bryon, it's nice to see you again," Jasper told his two son and it was very obvious that he was being sincere because his expression just lit up when he saw his two boys. "Bella and I have missed you while you were away."

"We weren't gone that long, dad," Bryon gently teased to his father.

"Just because you were only gone a month or so doesn't mean that Bella and I didn't miss you just like we miss all our children when they're out traveling the world or doing their own thing," Jasper informed his son with a twinkle in his red eyes. "So are you going to introduce me? Didn't your mother and I manage to teach you any manners?"

"Oh, right," Bryon said lowering his head and radiating embarrassment. "Dad, I'd like you to meet Scott's family, this is Julia, Henry, Alisa and Jason.

"It's my pleasure to meet members of Scott's family," Jasper told the four younger Blackwoods sincerely shaking all four of their hands. "Meeting relatives doesn't usually happen you know as mostly no matter what family a vampire had before they were turned they have to just kind of disappear and never contact any of their family again. Of course, most of the time a vampire doesn't remember if they had any family or if they do remember if they had brothers or sisters or parents they don't remember specific names so it's impossible to track down that vampire's remaining family anyway, but this time things turned out a little different as I'm sure you're aware. Scott remembered more about his family then I expected him to, but of course Bryon kind of reminded him about you all after he was past his newborn stage."

"Scott had told me all about you of course, and how much he missed you when he was human and when he asked me after he was changed if he had any family I told him about all of you and he remembered not only you, but a lot of his childhood and growing up."

"Uh can I ask a question?" Julia asked a little tentatively as she didn't want to overstep any unforeseen boundaries.

"Go right ahead," Jasper said understanding Julia's nervousness as she was in a roomful of vampires that could either drain her and her siblings blood or tear all four of them to shreds in seconds. "All four of you are now part of my family just as Scott is or you will be just as soon as you are finished with your transformations."

"Well, I noticed how much you and Bryon look alike as if you are really related and yet I was under the impression that as vampires you couldn't have children."

"Ah, we get that question a lot," said Bella looking at Jasper.

"We do and the answer is that of course you are right, Bryon really is our son as are all our children," Jasper explained.

"But how? If the legends and books are at all accurate vampires aren't supposed to be able to have children, because their organs are stopped, which is why they don't age."

"And normally you would be correct," Bella said draping an affectionate arm around Jasper's shoulders. "See the story goes like this..." said Bella going onto explain about how she and Jasper had been in Greece in the 1950's and how they had discovered this old shrine covered in brambles and with one corner chipped away.

"So because of a magical amulet that the Goddess Artemis gave you for repairing her shrine she gave you the ability to have children," said Julia her disbelief obvious.

"Believe us, we know how hard it is to believe," said Bella. "Jasper and I are not unaware how incredible the story sounds, as no one in this day and age believes in magic or in old gods or goddess. People don't like to believe that at one time magic was very real and so were the Greek gods and goddess that walked the Earth, but that doesn't make our story any less true. Bryon and his twin sister Melodie look so much like Jasper, because they are truly Jasper's and mine biological children."

"Just you wait until you meet some of my other brothers and sisters and you'll see how much they look like mom and dad," Bryon said. "You're welcome to make up your own minds about whether we are or not biologically theirs, but really there's no point of us lying to you about it since you are going to be part of the Whitlock family."

"I'm not saying that I don't believe you, just that it's a little hard to swallow that's all," Julia said and the other three Blackwoods nodded in agreement.

"Believe me we've had very similar reactions from several other vampires we've told that noticed the similarities, which were just to obvious and too many for there to be no relation at all," Jasper said with a slight grin telling the four Blackwoods that he hadn't taken offense at their disbelief, which relieved all of them. "Bella and I know very well how hard it is to believe, but really we are both grateful that we went to Greece all those years ago as we wouldn't have our children who mean absolutely everything to us. Bella and I knew before we went to Greece that we would never have children at all, unless we bit a human in the traditional vampire way..."

"And neither Jasper or I were very fond of the idea of just turning some random human into a vampire so we could supposedly have a child," Bella added and Jasper nodded in agreement. "Both of us had resigned ourselves to the fact that we would never have the family that we both wanted, until we went to Greece that is."

"I would think when other vampires found out about the necklace they would try steal it so that they could have children of their own," Alisa said speaking for the first time her voice soft, but understandable to all the vampires in the room thanks to their advanced hearing. The other's besides Julia had already heard this story from Bryon and Scott, but it had bot been explained about why other vampire's couldn't just steal the necklace for themselves.

"See that's the thing," Jasper said with an absolutely evil and fierce grin that caused all the humans in the room to shudder even though they knew Jasper expression wasn't directed at them. "Nobody can steal it because it won't go with anybody that Bella and I don't trust absolutely. The Volturi, our rulers, tried that very tactic you know when they found out about our family and they had to give it back for when they tried to take it away from us it started to tingle against the skin of whoever was holding it and the farther away it got from us the more the amulet burned them, even through their clothes until it was unbearable for them to continue holding onto it. They really had no choice, but to bring it back to us and leave without it because it just would've continued to get one worse and worse the further away they got."

"Why didn't they just destroy it then?" asked Jason, curiously.

Jasper and Bella both grinned in satisfaction this time and Bella said, "They tried, believe me they did. They tried bending it, burning it in the fireplace, smashing it and any number of other methods and not a single one of them worked and the necklace came out undamaged each and every time and considering how strong vampires are you would think that would be impossible."

"Normally a vampire can crush even a rock to powder so you would think something that is only metal would be very easily destroyed, but there wasn't so much as a dent or a scratch in the necklace at all," Bryon said with a grin.

"You were there for the confrontation?" asked Scott speaking for the first time. "I didn't know that."

"I was there," Bryon confirmed, "and in fact the only one of us not there for the confrontation with the Volturi were Xander, Kian, Trace, Sawyer, Quin and Callisto and that's only because they hadn't been born yet."

"The Volturi picked a really bad time to try to confront us as the who family was together for a change, which is a very rare event, except at Christmas," said Bella.

"It was mom and dad's anniversary, the anniversary of their mating and all of us decided that it would be a good idea to show up and throw them a party," Bryon recalled. "We knew that mom, especially misses us when we aren't close by."

"What can I say, except that I never dreamed I would have a family to lavish my affection on, so of course, I miss my children when they aren't around," Bella said with a careless shrug a little grin playing on her lips.

"And we miss you to, even when we're gone," Bryon assured his mother with a heart shattering grin.

"Flatterer, that's what you are," Bella muttered at her son kissing his cheek affectionately.

Jasper watched the scene in amusement and thought that his son sure had gotten very smooth in his compliments, although it was still obvious that Bryon meant what he had said.

"How can it be flattery if it's true?" asked Bryon with a raised eyebrow that was so similar to Jasper's that it practically choked Bella up. "Don't we call you at least once every couple of weeks without fail? Would Scott and I do that if we didn't care if you were worried about us or not, even though you know we've been trained to take care of ourselves?"

"All right, all right," muttered Bella pretending to be cross, although both Bryon and Jasper knew differently.

"We do love you, you know, mom," Scott said and all four younger Blackwoods were extremely shocked when Scott called Bella mom, although they supposed it made sense as in a way Bella was just as much a mother to Scott as she was to Bryon.

"I know it is very shocking to hear your brother call someone else mom, but Bella and I did request that Scott as well as Lindsey and Gerik refer to us as mom and dad," Jasper told Scott's family calmly. "We, of course, ask you to do the same, although it is still perfectly alright if you just want to refer to us by our first names. We are a very close family as I'm sure you'll discover when you get to know us better."

"The Whitlocks are a very close family," Scott told his four younger siblings. "All Bryon's brothers and sisters welcomed me into their family with no reservations, which I certainly didn't expect as I told you just a few days ago."

"That's the understatement of the century," Bryon snorted thinking Scott's now deceased parents with contempt. "Scott half expected to be told that he wasn't good enough for me just because he was male and expected to be killed, so that I could marry some nice vampire girl eventually and have children. Like that was ever going to happen."

"That is your fault, son," Jasper told Bryon reprovingly.

"I know," Bryon admitted looking sheepish and a little upset.

"Why was it Bryon's fault that Scott thought that?" asked Julia curiously.

"Because, although, Bryon told me that mate bonds were sacred, I didn't really believe him because he didn't explain to me why they were and it didn't help that I wasn't used to being open about the fact that I was gay," Scott explained to Julia since she hadn't heard any of this like his other three siblings had. He remembered his three weeks of uncertainty with a wince and continued his explanation. "He didn't tell me that the reason mate bonds were considered sacred was because the fact that if a vampire's mate were to die that they always follow their mate into death shortly thereafter and if he had I certainly would have understood better why a bond between mates was not to be messed with."

"I didn't think it mattered," Bryon said grimacing in disgust as he was still a little upset with himself for withholding information from his mate. He had been trying to save Scott unnecessary worrying, but he had instead increased his worrying unintentionally. "I know better now and if I had really thought about it I would have told Scott the reason that mate bonds were considered sacred, but I didn't want to worry him more than he was already and he was also going through so much, trying to get used to the fact that vampires did indeed exist that I feared if I told him that he wouldn't be able to handle it. I should have known better and that Scott was tougher then I thought, but at the time I suppose I just wasn't thinking straight."

"It wasn't totally your fault." Jasper admitted after a moment. "I know that it was at least partially Bryon's inexperience with how tough some humans can really be. A lot of human handle more than we give them credit for while others can't."

"It doesn't really matter," Scott said calmly. "Even vampires can make mistakes and because I knew that he thought he was protecting me from being emotionally wounded I forgave him so long as he promised to not withhold any information from me anymore supposedly for my own good."

"Yes, I can see why you would forgive him," Julia said quietly. "When you love someone, really love them, you forgive each other no matter how many mistakes they make as you know that they did it with only your best intentions in mind, even if they were wrong to do so."

"That's it exactly," Bella agreed thinking that despite Julia being so deathly ill she was still a very intelligent young lady. "Even mates argue every once in awhile. Jasper and I certainly do, although that doesn't happen very often anymore since we've known each other for so long, but doing the first few decades after we met, oh yes."

"Every couple argues whether vampire or human," Jasper said.

Before any of the Blackwoods could respond suddenly the front door opened and a cheerful voice said, "Hello? Anybody home?"

"Patrick," Bella called recognising her son not only by his voice, but his scent as all vampires had a unique smell and could be identified very easily by it. "Come say hello to Scott's family."

Patrick came into the living room and looked at the four humans sitting on various pieces of furniture.

"It's a pleasure to meet Scott's family as he talks about you all the time, but let me introduce myself, I'm Patrick Whitlock," Patrick introduced himself to the four younger Blackwoods shaking each of their hands until he got to Julia who he stared at as if in a daze, his expression incredibly goofy, while Julia did the same.

"Patrick, I had no idea you even in the area, why didn't you contact your father and me to let us know you were coming by?" Bella lightly scolded her son.

Patrick had of course known that his parents were moving to the house in Houston and Jasper and Bella had made sure to call all their children to let them know where they were located just in case they wanted to visit.

"I thought I'd surprise you," Patrick said with a grin that was so much like hers it almost gave Bella a start.

"You certainly did that," Jasper said looking between Patrick and Julia and knew without having to be told that his oldest son and Scott's sister were mates, which was a very interesting development.

Bella shot Jasper a look and let him know without having to say anything that she had indeed noticed the oldest son's distraction and had already figured out the reason behind it, which wasn't surprising since Jasper knew that his Bella was very intelligent and observant.

"Why don't you sit down and join us for a few minutes," Jasper suggested knowing that he wouldn't be able to pry his son away from Julia's side come hell or high water as the saying went.

The nine of them chatted for a few minutes, although Julia and Patrick mostly stared into each other's eyes as if no one else was in the room at all.

"What's going on?" asked Jason as he watched Patrick and Julia just kind of look at each other intently their expressions hard to read not saying anything at all.

Bryon grinned and said, "Your sister and my brother are mates is what's going on."

"What?!" Henry, Ailsa and Jason exclaimed at the same time not sure if this was a good thing or not.

"Oh it's a very good thing," said Jasper the amusement in his tone clear. "I'm sure you didn't expect this when you brought Julia here, but then neither did we. What it really means though, is that there's no way we can let Julia die now and you know why. What it also it means though, is that Julia will already have a mate once she is turned and she will not have a chance to be lonely like I was before I found Bella or like Bryon was before he found Scotty. Being a vampire can be very lonely business and it doesn't really matter how much family you have or how many friends as you might be content, with just that, but not truly happy until you find your mate that is."

"Don't even think about objecting," Scott told his three younger siblings seeing how they were about to protest. "Julia has a right to make her own decisions and when she is turned she will no longer be weak from the cancer running through her body. Besides Patrick is a good guy, vampire or not and so you shouldn't object, not that it is your place to do so."

Henry, Jason and Ailsa all looked throughly chastened as they knew Scott was very right as there really was no grounds for them to object, except for the fact that they tended to be overprotective ever since Julia had first gotten cancer at 19.

"I know your feeling overprotective," Scott added after a moment, "but there's really no need to be as Patrick will treat our sister like a princess."

"Dad," Patrick said finally starting to pay attention to the others in the room. "Do you mind if I take Julia up to my room so we can talk in private?"

Scott nodded approvingly.

"I don't mind," Jasper said, "You'll have to be very gentle carrying her upstairs son, as the reason that Scott brought his family here is because Julia has cancer and he didn't want her to die."

Patrick looked stricken at his father's words and Julia nodded sadly confirming what Jasper had said, "It's true, I've been fighting leukemia since I was 19 years old, but my body has finally lost the battle as the doctor said I didn't have more than a couple of months to live."

"That won't happen now," Patrick said looking fiercely protective.

"No, it won't," Julia agreed. "Scott revealed himself to us only because I was so sick. Scott said that if we had all been healthy and happy that he wouldn't have bothered with revealing himself to us, but that wasn't what he and Bryon discovered when he came back to Melrose for the first time in eight years. He decided to reveal himself to all of us as he didn't see anyway of getting me released from the hospital and kidnapping me from my sick bed me would have been very difficult, if not impossible. He said he couldn't just let me die since I was his sister and he loved me."

"I'll always be grateful to Scott for bringing Julia here," Patrick told his brother-in-law.

"No thanks necessary," Scott assured Patrick with a wink. "It just kind of worked out if you know what I mean. I had no idea that by bringing Julia here that I was doing anything other then saving my sister's life, by turning her into a vampire. Just treat her right and we'll get along just fine."

"Scott, I can take care of myself," Julia protested weakly looking angry.

"If you weren't so sick, I would agree, sis," Scott told Julia unperturbed by his sister's anger, no matter how weak it was. "You are though and besides Patrick isn't human and only another vampire can handle one of their own kind, but since I know Paddy is a gentleman and would never do anything to hurt you I know my warning isn't going to be necessary."

"You'll just have to face it sis all of us love you, and when you love someone you care about their welfare," Jason said speaking for the first time in quite a long while.

"Having someone to care about you is certainly better than being alone," Jasper said. "I was alone for quite a long time before I met Bella and not having anyone else to worry about you is not all it's cracked up to be believe me. Well, I suppose I did have Peter and Charlotte but I didn't see them to often."

Julia sighed and gave in and she supposed it was kind of nice to have her family worry about her, though they'd always had been overprotective and ever since had come down with leukemia when she was 19.

"So when are you going to do the transformations?" asked Patrick with a raised eyebrow as he picked Julia up gently and tenderly into his arms, cradling her body against his chest.

"Whenever they are ready, although we can't afford to wait too long since Julia is so sick," Jasper said.

"I think we're ready just about anytime," Henry said looking at his other three siblings including Julia who was in the Patrick's arms. "I say the sooner we get the transformation over with the better as I'm not looking forward to being in so much pain for so long."

"I agree," said Alisa.

"Me to," Jason said while Julia just nodded in agreement.

"Anybody that looks forward to that kind of pain is obviously out of their head," Patrick said dryly causing Julia to chuckle weakly.

Patrick turned towards the stairs and walked up them at a human pace so that he didn't jostle Julia to much as she was now and until the end of time his main concern.

"Well, I'm sure we won't see the two of them for awhile," Bella said dryly as she watched her oldest son take such care of a very sick Julia.

"What do you mean?" Henry demanded looking instantly agitated.

"Not what you're thinking," Bella assured the other three Blackwoods. "No mated pair can hurt each other, and Julia is hardly in any shape to do what you are probably imagining right now. Really all I meant was that they'll probably talk a great deal learning about each other and Patrick will be very tender with her until she is like him and then I'm sure you know what will happen. Paddy will probably try to get Julia to tell him as much about her life as he can so that he can help her remember what her human life was like before she was changed if she wants to know. Once a vampire learns something they never forget."

"So Bryon said," said Jason looking faintly relieved as did Alisa and Henry.

"You're just going to have to get used to the fact that your sister is now mated and I'm sure Bryon already explained to you what that really means," Jasper told the three remaining Blackwoods. "Julia and Patrick will be spending a great amount of time together alone, especially after all of you are turned into vampires for at least the first ten years, so that the mating bond has time to mature and there's nothing you can do to prevent it."

"Look, we will try not to interfere between our sister and your son," Henry said finally. "We just want Julia to be happy and she hasn't been very happy ever since she got this leukemia at 19. So long as she is happy with Patrick then we'll not interfere."

"Good," Jasper said pleased.

"Well partly we don't want to interfere because Julia would kill us if we tried," Jason said with a little laugh. "I'm afraid our sister has quite a temper, which I suppose goes with the red hair."

"She's always been quick to lash out if she feels we're interfering in our life when we have no business being," Alisa said remembering some evidence of Julia's temper. Alisa unlike Henry and Julia hadn't gotten the red hair. No her hair was long, curly and black like Scott's and Jason's, even though she was the youngest of three triplets she really didn't look much like her sister and brother that she had shared the womb with at all, although it was still obvious she was related to the Blackwoods since she did indeed look like Scott and Jason in her facial bone structure as well as body type. For one thing Alisa was considerably shorter than her other four sibling as she was only 5' 2' while Scott was 6'5 as was Henry. As for Julia she was only an inch from being six feet tall which was pretty tall for a woman and if she hadn't gotten so sick she probably could have have played professional basketball as not only did she have the height for it, but the talent as well. Jason of course was also pretty tall, although he was really just about what was considered average height for a man, as he was several inches taller then Julia, but also shorter then his two brothers as he was only 6'2. Alisa was by far the shortest of the five siblings and she had often wondered how she could be related to the other's since she did look different from Henry and Julia. It wasn't that Alisa doubted that she was Blackwood as she did resemble her siblings enough in that way, it was just the fact that she was the shortest one and you would think that her height would at least be the same as Julia's or Henry's instead of her being a whole foot and three inches shorter then Henry and nine inches shorter then Julia.

"Well, at least she doesn't hold a grudge like some people and she's usually pretty quick to forgive us if we do make her mad." said Henry. Henry sobered and then said, "One of the reasons the three of us are so protective of her isn't just because of the leukemia, but because she was dating this boy all through her high school years and she thought she really loved him and that he loved her and that eventually they would end up marrying, but when she got sick, he just said sayonara and vanished not even bothering to come see how she was doing, even though they had been dating for almost three years. Julia's break up with Jack nearly destroyed her and it didn't help that she was already dealing with the fact that she had one of the most deadly diseases known to humankind. Ever since that day all three of us have been a bit overprotective of her as what Jack did was very wrong and that he didn't even try to apologize for breaking up with her at all and in fact barely said goodbye before vanishing completely from her life those three years apparently meaning absolutely nothing to him."

"What a loser," Bryon said growling a little looking upset as he had already become quite fond of Julia and Scott's other siblings as well.

"It's a good thing I didn't know about this while we were still in my old hometown or I would've found him and drained him just for hurting my sister so much emotionally," Scott said growling just as Bryon had except his was louder and more furious.

"And I would've helped," Bryon added. "As Jack is nothing but the scum of the Earth, leaving Julia in the lurch when she needed him the most. He didn't even try to be supportive just to see if he and Julia could've worked it out and that absolutely burns me up."

"Well, that is no longer problem as I don't think Patrick needs to ever know about Julia's previous relationship unless she tells him because I know that he's going to want to go and tear Jack to shreds," Jasper said. "I certainly would have torn any human boy or man into little, teeny, tiny pieces if anybody had hurt Bella like that when she was human."

"My hero," Bella teased Jasper gently.

"Yes, well, you know very well that vampire mates are very protective of each other," Jasper told her not embarrassed in the least.

"Yes I know," Bella said soothingly, "and I guarantee you if I had known you while you were still human and I had learned of some woman that had hurt you like Jack hurt Julia I guarantee you there wouldn't have been enough left to identify."

"Wow! Ferocious much, mom?" asked Bryon impressed who had never known his mother could be so ferocious, but on the other hand Bella was a vampire and violence was part of a vampire's nature, so perhaps he had just never been around when she was furious about something.

"Just because I'm usually a very nice and forgiving individual doesn't mean that I can't be ferocious when I need to be," Bella told her son with a wink. "I'd rather be nice, but that doesn't mean I don't have it in me to be violent if some situation upsets me enough to require it. I am a vampire after all and just because I don't normally act violently doesn't me I'm not capable of it."

Jasper chuckled at that as he knew what Bella said was true, as there had been several occasions in the past to where Bella was extremely ticked off and some human had been torn into very small pieces that were later disposed of in such a way that the parts would never be found.

Scott observed the interaction and thought that this was a side of his adoptive mother that he had never seen before, but on the other hand he really hadn't known her or Jasper or even Bryon very long and he was sure he would be learning about personality traits of his new family for sometime to come.

"It's late, why don't we get you some dinner as I'm sure you're hungry and then we'll show you were you can sleep for the night," Jasper suggested seeing how the three humans in the room were yawning. "We can continue this discussion tomorrow if you want."

"What about Julia?" asked Henry.

"Patrick will take care of her," Bella assured him. "I for one am looking forward to welcoming Julia as my new daughter-in-law and you three as well into my already very large family. Personally, I think that you can never have too much family or too many people that love you and would do anything for you."

"I agree," Jasper said. "Most vampires don't have anyone else unless they are mated or have decided to join with other vampires for protection or just companionship, so it's kind of nice to have such a large family and I still wonder how Bella and I have been so blessed as there is no way that Bella I would have bitten so many humans in order to have a family and that we might never have had children, even in the traditional vampire way if not for Artemis's gift."

"Why wouldn't you have just bitten say a dozen humans if you wanted a family that bad?" asked Alisa curiously. "You could've had an instant family that way."

"But would we have cared about them as much as we do all our children that were actually birthed from me?" asked Bella. "I'm sure we would've come to care about them and love them eventually, but it would have taken time."

"Besides Bella and I would never one to just bite somebody whether injured or healthy just to have a family and if we had even considered going that route we would've had to have gotten to know whoever it was first and come to care for them so much that we didn't want them to die when their human days were done."

"Besides as much as I wanted a family when I was human I would've been perfectly happy with it being just Jasper and me because while he is essential to my continued existence, children are not despite how much I ached to have them."

"And thanks to Artemis's gift we now have the best of both worlds," Jasper said.

"So does that mean that if Patrick and Julia eventually want children that they could have them with the amulet?" asked Henry thinking about how he would love to have some nieces and nephews eventually, who he would spoil rotten of course.

"Yes, if Patrick and Julia wanted to have children, eventually then Bella and I would loan them the amulet so that they could," Jasper confirmed. "Of course they might not want to as Lindsey and my son Trey have never had children and neither has Gerik and my daughter Brianna and they've been mated for quite sometime now."

"Give them time," Bella told Jasper. "I want grandchildren as much as you do, but didn't you once tell me not to force them or even mention it as that might cause them to never have any as you know how stubborn all our children can be when they feel as if they are backed into a corner. If they want children I'm sure they'll eventually ask to borrow the necklace so that they can have them as they've only been mated about fifteen years after all and it's not like Lindsey or Brianna are ever going to get to old to have them."

"So that must mean that you trust us and them," Alisa said, "because didn't you tell us that the amulet won't work for anybody you don't trust 100%?

"We did," Bella confirmed, "and of course we trust you. You are Scott's family after all and we trust you just as much as we trust him."

"How do you know you can trust us?" asked Jason. "You hardly even know us."

"Because as humans you give all certain signals that are invisible to you humans unless you have some very sophisticated equipment," Jasper explained, "but that a vampire can discern very easily. Your body gives off certain bodily tells when you lie, you body language can give you away as can your heartbeat which increases when a human tries to tell a lie, and you start to sweat, you know that kind of thing that makes it easy to tell when somebody is lying. Unless you are very practiced at lying, all these things tell somebody who knows how to read the signals that, that person is not exactly being truthful and for vampires it is even easier since we can hear your heartbeat and know what the normal beat of one sounds like. I have met a few humans in my time that were truly skilled at the art of prevarication and so had all, but eliminated those bodily tells and the only reason I knew they really were lying was because of the fact that I'm an empath and can feel emotions and also change those emotions as well."

"You can ask your questions in the morning as we see you three can barely stay awake as it is so let me show you to your rooms."

Henry, Alisa and Jason nodded and rose from the sofa knowing that they wouldn't be able to stay awake much longer as they were very tired as they had been through quite a lot in the last couple of days and it had left all three of them exhausted, and Julia even more so. Also that none of them had been sleeping very well wondering what was going to happen to them hadn't helped them not be so tired at all.

"Here you go," Bella said leading the 3 to separate rooms that actually had bed's in them. "The clothes you brought with you should already be here," Bella said closing the doors behind her as each of the Blackwoods went into the room she had assigned them. "Have a good night's sleep and we'll see you in the morning."

"Good night," all three answered her sleepily before Bella headed back downstairs.

~~~Bryon and Scott~~~

Patrick set Julia gently down on the couch he had in his room as there had never been a point of him having a bed since he couldn't sleep. He'd be looking into getting a bed sometime in the near future though for all the houses that his parents owned and not just this one. Also he might want to start looking into buying himself some property so that he and Julia could get away from everything if they wanted. That could wait awhile though as for right now he was going to concentrate on getting to know his mate who he had never expected to meet and he definitely hadn't expected her to be his brother's mate's sister.

Julia looked around the room and noticed that it was definitely set up for a man's taste although not having a bed was kind of weird even though she knew that vampires couldn't sleep.

"So I take it from what was said downstairs that the same thing happened to you and me that happened to my brother and Bryon.

"It did," Patrick answered honestly, "and I definitely wasn't expecting it."

"Neither was I, but then again when you're as sick as I am and have been for three years you really don't expect to fall in love. It was almost like being struck by lightning."

"For me too," Patrick assured her. "I had no idea that when I came to visit mom and dad for a few days that I would end up finding the woman I was supposed to spend the rest of my existence with."

"I'm glad you found me," Julia told him very gently leaning out to kiss his cheek from where he was sitting beside her. "Now I know I won't be lonely after I am turned into a vampire. I know I still have to go through my transformation and my newborn year as your father explained, but hopefully we'll still be together even after all that."

"We will be," Patrick swore. "I don't intend on leaving your side at all doing your transformation or for your newborn year. Mates aren't going to abandon each other just because of a little difficulty or because they have some kind of argument. In that way we definitely not like humans who get married all the time and then get divorced 60% of the time. When a vampire finds a mate it is permanent and eternal as they never fall out of love like humans tend to do. I'm not saying our life together will be all roses, as there is bound to be some friction—especially in the first few decades as we learn each other habits and personalities—just that we will never be able to permanently be apart because of the bond and we won't want to be anyway."

Julia listened to Patrick's words and nodded if only to herself as that was exactly how Bryon and Scott had described their relationship. She and Patrick would never get divorced, if they did eventually decide to get married that is, or separate just because of a little friction as even vampire mates couldn't get along all the time as that would be impossible. Besides most vampires had once been human and human beings definitely weren't built to get along all the time because if they did they wouldn't be so many criminals in society or people who argued all the time, not to mention all the wars that human beings had fought in for one reason or another. Human beings weren't perfect by any stretch of the imagination and even though Patrick and his brothers and sisters might have been born vampires, that didn't mean that they didn't have some of the same problems that the more traditional vampires did and by traditional she meant ones who had been bitten in order to be turned into what they were, the ones who had once been human.

"Bryon said something similar when he and Scott were telling us about the world of vampires," Julia said as she leaned against the armrest of the couch with her legs stretched out over Patrick's lap.

"I'm actually surprised that Bryon and Scott decided to tell you all about vampires in the first place," Patrick said proud of his little brother for taking what was for him a huge step. "Bryon has always said that he would never reveal himself to a human unless he was going to drain them afterwards and that the only exception he was going to make was if he found his mate someday. Telling you and your brothers and sister about the world of vampires and that they do exist was really a very big step for him."

"I believe that Scott kind of urged him to do it because he didn't want me to die," said Julia.

"Yes, that's true that a mate has great influence over their partner," Patrick said replacing husband or wife with partner since both Scott and Bryon were male. "A mate doesn't want their other half to be upset and losing you especially since you are so young would've stayed with Scott for the rest of his existence and he would've carried around this hole in his heart for the rest of his time on this Earth. If you had been healthy and happy and if you had died of natural causes 70 to 80 years from now he might've been a little bit sad that you were gone, but at least he would've known that you had lived a long and healthy life and that it was simply your time to die. Something like cancer though robbed you of your chance to live out your natural lifespan and to eventually get married and have children and so he just couldn't allow you to die when you were only in your early twenties and should have had a very long and bright future ahead of you."  
"You and I can have children one day if we want, can't we?" asked Julia thinking of the amulet.

"If you would like to have children someday then yes we can," Patrick assured Julia. "I never really thought about it if you want to know the truth because I never figured I'd find my mate and I wasn't about to have children with some random vampire female that I might have been infatuated with."

Patrick stopped right there realizing what he had just admitted and Julia looked into his eyes and said, "I didn't expect you to be a virgin you know as I'm sure even a vampire has sexual needs and they can't wait however long to find their mate if they ever do. You don't ever have to worry about my reaction when you tell me something like that as those episodes are in the past, years or even decades before you met me."

Patrick released a near silent sigh of relief that another vampire would have been able to pick up but not a human.

"I've had my share of relationships," Patrick admitted, "Nobody as old as am has not."

"How old are you anyway?" asked Julia curiously.

"165," Patrick told her out quite calmly waiting for her reaction.

Julia whistled appreciatively and said a little teasingly, "Don't you feel as if you are robbing the cradle getting involved with someone as young as I am?"

"Not really, because the mate bond never would have appeared at all if we weren't compatible or right for each other," Patrick told her. "One thing about mate bonds you might not know is that the vampire pair in question has to be compatible and the more compatible they are the stronger the bond is. My parents when they first discovered each other found out that the bond between them was very strong because they were more compatible and had many similar interests and I have been told that the intensity of the bond tells how compatible a vampire mated couple is. It's one of the reasons that my parents always seem to get along so well."

"Don't they ever argue?" Julia asked not knowing that one of her siblings had asked a very similar question just a few minutes ago.

"Sure they do," Patrick said, "but they always make up within a short time, not that they argue very much at all really. Being mad at your mate is almost like being mad at yourself since your mate is a part of you and the other half of your soul. I'm not saying they haven't had some doozies over the years, but that was decades ago and as far as I know they haven't had any major arguments in over a hundred years."

"So once we really get to know each other we probably won't argue that much," Julia summarized.

"Probably, unless we're more like Lindsey and Trey who argue just for the sake of arguing," Patrick said with a shrug.

"They argue for the sake of arguing?" asked Julia with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes, they argue over silly things, partly, because I think they love to make up afterwards." Patrick explained. "When they first met they argued all the time because they were still getting to know each other, but now it's pretty much disintegrated into arguing in a way that doesn't have any serious heat behind it, at least most of the time. It's just the way they are you know arguing and then making up."

"I don't plan on arguing with you over silly things," Julia informed Patrick. "If we argue it won't be over something mundane."

"That's fine with me," Patrick said, "as I'd rather not argue with you all the time anyway. I'm not saying we will not do some arguing, but I'd rather save our arguments for the serious issues and not argue over silly things."

"I'm looking forward to meeting the rest of your family and I never thought I'd say that about any boy," said Julia.

"Why?" asked Patrick curiously.

"Because I dated this one boy for three years and when I found out I had leukemia he broke up with me without even trying to see if we could work it out or trying to be supportive. I felt at the time I had lost my best friend if you know what I mean and having to also absorb the fact that there was a very good chance that I wouldn't be there to see my 25th birthday didn't help at all."

Patrick growled at that wanting to go tear the boy who had hurt his mate to shreds, but knowing Julia probably wouldn't appreciate it if he did and she needed him more than his desire to annihilate anyone that had hurt her.

"His name was Jack Burness, and at the time we started dating I was just 16 and I thought he was the love of my life. We were together for almost three years and I thought I'd marry him someday and have a couple of kids. Boy at that time I sure was naïve as him leaving me in the lurch like that took me totally by surprise."

"You were only 19 when he broke up with you and 16 when you started dating him in the first place," Patrick told Julia soothingly. "You know one of my father's favorite sayings is that it takes decades to gain true wisdom and that most humans never reach that point or if they do they're old and gray before that occurs. I think my father would say that you were taken in by his handsome face and thought he would support you though anything, but he turned out to be nothing but a scoundrel. You also have to realize though, that you were only 16 and most 16 year olds aren't very good judges of character as it takes time to develop that instinct, no offense. At 16 you barely know anything about the world at all really."

Julia thought about that and then found out that she agreed, although normally she would have jumped down anyone's throat that said that she didn't have good judgment, but for some reason the way Patrick phrased it didn't cause that reaction in her. Patrick seemed to be able to say things to her that she would never have accepted from anyone else and perhaps that had to do with the mate bond that she and Patrick had, although she didn't know for sure.

"You're right," Julia finally admitted, "which for the record is practically a miracle as I do tend to jump down most people's throats when they question my good judgment, but for some reason you don't cause that kind of reaction in me when anybody else has."

Patrick grinned at that as he was glad to know that he was the one person that Julia wouldn't jump down the throat of when he questioned her judgment. "That's good to know."

Julia chuckled weakly at that and then yawned.

"Perhaps you should get some sleep," Patrick suggested. "You're bound to tire easily with your body being so weak from the leukemia and that you stayed awake for so long it's probably a minor miracle as I've read that people in the last stages of cancer tend to sleep a great deal."

"I really don't want to go to sleep just in case I wake up and find out I was dreaming," Julia protested, yawning again unable to help herself. "I've never been so happy in my life and that's despite the cancer that is running rampant through my body."

"I'll be here for you right when you awake," Patrick promised. "I'm sorry I don't have a bed, but I never needed one before now. I'll make sure to buy one for all my parents houses for my room for when we visit them."

"This couch is pretty comfortable," Julia said forcing her eyes to stay open even though they really were getting very heavy.

"I'll leave you to sleep," Patrick said and showed signs of getting up.

"Stay with me," Julia requested through a yawn. "Please?"

Patrick nearly laughed out loud at the way Julia sleepily begged him to stay as there was no reason for her to do that as he would do anything she wanted, including jumping off a cliff if she asked him to.

"I won't leave your side," Patrick promised softly and quite passionately as he sat on the end of the couch where Julia's head was and placed it gently in his lap, stroking what there was of her red hair soothingly until she was fast asleep.

~~~Bryon and Scott~~~

"Good morning, beautiful," Patrick greeted Julia as soon as he heard her heart begin to speed up indicating that she was beginning to wake up.

Julia yawned and then seemed to register Patrick's comment. "I'm hardly beautiful," Julia told him. "I've lost so much weight from this leukemia that I'm nothing but a sack of skin around a skeleton and my hair, which used to go past my shoulders hardly covers my head anymore."

"Julia you could hardly be anything but beautiful," Patrick told his mate sincerely. "Once you go through the change all that will be corrected and the cancer will be gone, permanently gone to never return. You're flesh will fit the shape of your bones and not be just be a sack of skin around a skeleton as you put it. Also your hair will grow at least an inch, maybe two where it'll be at least halfway to your shoulders instead of just covering your head."

"Love must truly be blind," Julia muttered still not sure what Patrick saw in her whether they were mates or not, although she hadn't voiced her doubts last night. In the light of day through, she truly wondered what such a gorgeous guy saw in her emaciated frame as she no longer had her perfect figure that she had worked so hard to maintain, all through her high school years. Once she had been one of the prettiest girls in her hometown of Melrose, but when the leukemia had hit she had quickly lost so much weight that she didn't really look like her anymore at least in her opinion. Julia didn't understand that it wasn't just her body that Patrick found attractive, although that was certainly part of it, but her personality, her soul and in fact every thing that made her who she was both inside and out was what Patrick liked. In other words the whole package not just part of it.

"No love isn't blind, at least in my case," Patrick told Julia who was startled as she hadn't realized that she had spoken that out loud. "It's more than your looks I find attractive, but everything, your personality, your heart, your soul, in other words the whole package not just the wrapping. I'm not so shallow that I would reject you just because at the moment you aren't looking your best. The mate bond wouldn't have formed between us if our personalities weren't at least similar. Also just so you know both my parents always taught me to look beneath the surface of things and what that means is that no matter how beautiful or plain you are does not necessarily mean you are a good person. You could be as beautiful as a goddess and still be evil to the core or you could be so plain that you tend to fade into the background and be a very nice person that most people wouldn't care about getting to know, because they don't care to look beneath the surface of things to find the unpolished gem underneath."

Julia thought about what Patrick and knew he was right as most humans never looked past the surface of things and she had often wished that more people did. His parents had apparently taught him and all his brothers and sisters how to look and see what a person was really like. Someone could act a certain way as she knew from experience seem like a perfect gentleman, but then turn out to be a total jerk once any hardship appeared, like Jack had done to her. She had always believed that she and Jack had the perfect relationship as they hardly ever argued, but Julia now knew how that was not true for all couples argued more than she and Jack had. Jack had just seemed happy to follow her in whatever she was doing, but the minute she had come down with leukemia he had abandoned her without a second thought and Julia knew now that was really not love, but infatuation.

"Have you ever encountered people like you just described to me?" asked Julia truly curious.

"Yes, I have," Patrick told her after hesitating for a moment, but he could never lie to his mate and she would soon discover it for herself in any case. "I've come across some really evil humans both men and women who were beautiful on the outside and pure evil on the inside. I, of course, didn't allow them to live once I discovered their true natures as taking criminals off the streets has always been something that my family and I have enjoyed doing."

"All of them were really criminals?" asked Julia.

"Yes, there was one time where this woman was using her good name in society and was a well known philanthropist who was always doing good works and making charitable donations to various charities. I found out though, almost by accident, that she was also selling drugs and a lot of other really evil crimes, like selling kids into prostitution, that nobody had ever caught or even suspected her for. She wasn't even suspected of any wrongdoing at all as far as I could discover, but she had made millions, and perhaps billions of dollars by committing crimes herself or paying somebody else to, usually the latter while she played the upstanding society hostess. She had a lot of people working for her that didn't even know who she was, but as long as they got their percentage of the profits they didn't really care."

"So what did you do?" asked Julia genuinely curious and not at all horrified at what Patrick was telling her probably because she figured that if anybody needed to die it was this woman.

"Well, she went most places with at least one bodyguard, if not two, so what I did was sneak into her house in the middle of the night, although it was more of a mansion then a house really, and woke her up from her rest and then explained about what I was, why I was there and what I was going to do to her. By the time I was done with that she was begging me to let her go and started to scream for help loud enough that she could have woken the servants very quickly, so I simply slapped a hand over her mouth and sunk my teeth into her neck. I really wanted to torture her for a year or two for all the people she had hurt with her crimes, especially the children, but I settled for just draining her dry, although the more vicious part of me felt like that was to quick, but really my only option."

"What did you do with the body and how did you escape?" asked Julia.

"Escaping wasn't really a problem as all I did was jump out the window landing on the ground feet first, even though I was on the third floor. I was gone in less than a thirty seconds as vampires can run very fast without ever getting out of breath or tiring. As for what happened to the evil woman, her servants found her in the morning when she didn't come down to breakfast like normal and as far as I know they never discovered how somebody had snuck into her home and killed their mistress."

"That's some story," Julia said the admiration clear in her voice, which named Patrick preen just a little.

"You're not scared of me after the story I told you?" asked Patrick a little apprehensively.

"No," Julia assured him. "It sounds as if that woman got what she deserved if she was really the criminal you made her out to be."

"Oh she was, trust me," said Patrick. "I will never lie to you and that's a promise."

"Surprisingly, even though I've known you for a less then a day, I do," Julia said. "I'm not so naïve to think that there are not evil people in the world. I know that evil is real as my experience with Jack taught me that. It's true that Jack wasn't exactly evil, just uncaring about anybody feelings, but his own. I only wish I had realized it sooner as you would think after three years with him I would know what he was like. I mean I spent a lot of time in his company and my parents certainly seemed to approve of him."

"Which should have told you something," Patrick snorted cynically. "Your parents weren't exactly the fine, upstanding citizen you always thought they were."

"That's true," Julia admitted. "I always wondered and so did my siblings about why they had thrown Scott out and forbade us to ever mention him again. They never really gave us an explanation as to why they had done what they had you know."

"They didn't want you to rebel against them if you discovered the reason they had disowned Scott was not because he had committed some great crime, but just because they suspected he was gay even though they never had it confirmed. Even if they had known that their son liked other men and had the proof that's still no reason to disown your own flesh and blood."

"I certainly agree with that," Julia said. "Now if you don't mind would you help me to the bathroom? I need to pee, badly."

"Of course," Patrick agreed scolding himself internally for forgetting that as a human Julia would need to use the facilities.

Once Julia had finished using the toilet Patrick helped her pull the pants that she had slept in all night back up. "I meant to ask you if you slept well last night?" Patrick asked as soon as he and Julia were seated back on the couch.

"You know, I really did. I slept better last night than I have in a very long time," Julia said after a moment of thinking about it. "I don't believe I've slept that well ever since I learned I had leukemia."

"Good, I'm glad that my staying with you helped you to sleep so well," Patrick commented not mentioning the fact that he hadn't been able to resist running his fingers slowly through Julia's short red hair all night. Perhaps his actions had helped his mate get her first good night of sleep in quite some time, which was good as far as he was concerned as Julia looked more alive this morning then she had yesterday, but still very weak.

"You know I believe it's you that helped me sleep so well," Julia admitted a little shyly, which was very unusual for her as normally she was never shy around the boys, but then again she had never felt like this towards any boy she had ever dated, not that she had dated all that many, since she and Jack had been going together for almost three years. "Maybe it was just the fact that I knew you were there, watching over me that helped keep the nightmare that I normally have at bay."

"I'm glad," Patrick told her.

"So what did you do all night, since I know you can't sleep?" asked Julia.

"Oh nothing much," Patrick said honestly. "I just sat here gazed at your lovely face and thought about the fact that I can't wait until you are a vampire so that we can do what I really want to without me hurting you."

Julia blushed knowing immediately what Patrick meant and wondering how this handsome man could make her blush so easily. Maybe it was because she knew he was being sincere in his compliments, while with other boys it was obvious they were only complimenting her because it was expected, not because they meant it. Of course, she hadn't been in love with any of her past boyfriends either, not even Jack, not like she was in love with Paddy even though she had known him less than 24 hours, so that more then likely had something to do with it as well.

"I know exactly what you're referring to and I can't wait either," Julia told Patrick blushing again as she looked up at his face trying not to stare at the muscles that peaked out from underneath his short sleeve shirt. "I never felt like this about any boy I dated before I came down with cancer that is. I know we haven't known each other very long at all, but for some reason I feel closer to you then anybody ever except maybe my family."

"That's at least partially the mate bond at work," Patrick told her with a slight grin as he was very happy that Julia felt so close to him and he knew her feelings would be at least 1000 times more powerful when she was a vampire. That Julia felt something for him now, no matter how weak it was boded well for their future he knew.

"You know what I wish more than anything right now?" Julia asked a little wistfully changing the subject.

"What's that?" asked Patrick. "Tell me what you desire and I will see if it's possible to grant as I want you to have everything you want."

Julia blushed at Patrick's words knowing that he meant every one and then told him very softly, "I wish I was strong enough to stand in the shower as I hate more than anything feeling grubby and I haven't really had a bath or shower in a long time as I've been to weak."

"How did you get cleaned then if you have been to weak to take an actual bath?" asked Patrick just a little curiously.

"Alisa has been giving me sponge baths for the last several months ever since I got to weak to get out of bed without help," Julia said blushing a little, yet again, as she explained, "but really they're not the same as a real shower, for although they wash off the the sweat and the dirt I don't really feel clean afterwards, although I'm not sure why as my sister always does a very good job."

"It's probably physiological," Patrick suggested. "When you're used to taking showers or bathes for your whole life and then suddenly you can't…"

Patrick didn't add the fact that his rather unruly libido couldn't help but think of all the things he'd like to do to Julia in the shower, which wouldn't happen until after she was a vampire so Patrick did his best to get himself under control, although that was far from easy.

"I never thought of it like that," Julia admitted, "but you're right."

"I could go get your sister up here in order to give you that sponge bath if you want," Patrick suggested.

"Maybe later," Julia said, "but for now I think we need to head downstairs so Henry, Alisa and Jason don't start don't to worry about me. They've been very overprotective of me ever since I came down with leukemia."

"It's only because they love you," Patrick told her gently.

"I know, and I love them too, but I can't wait until I'm a vampire so I can start to look after myself again."

"You know even when you're a vampire they are probably not going to stop being overprotective," Patrick said. "I'm sure you'll feel overprotective of them to as that's what love is really all of that."

"You're right about that," Julia said thinking that Patrick was very intelligent, but you couldn't live to be 165 years old vampire and learn nothing, "but also we will be able to escape the house and go somewhere else if we want if their overprotectiveness gets to be too much for me. Also if they do go to far I'll be happy to yell at them as I do have a temper."

"You'll have to put up with that overprotectiveness at least a couple of years before we can get out on our own," Patrick cautioned. "It will take you awhile to learn how to control all your new vampire abilities and also your bloodlust."

"It will be the same for all of us though, which puts us all on equal footing from the very beginning," Julia said.

"Yes, that's true," Patrick agreed.

"I suppose we had better get downstairs," Julia said sounding very reluctant as she enjoyed Patrick's company so much that she didn't particularly want to leave his room, but she knew that her brothers and her sister would be worried about her, so she would go and do her duty for awhile and then claim fatigue or something so she could leave.

"Yes, we should and we should also get you some breakfast," Patrick said just now remembering that as a human Julia needed to eat. "Mom bought all kinds of human food the day before she knew you would be arriving so she can cook you something."

"Your mother knows how to cook?" asked Julia in surprise. "Why does she know how to cook when vampires don't eat human food?"

"It's a skill she was taught when she was human and it just kind of stayed with her afterwards," Patrick explained. "She cooks quite often actually and donates it to the homeless shelters around the city. It gives her something to do that she enjoys as you will find that vampire life can be rather monotonous and keeping yourself busy is a must."

"That makes sense," Julia admitted, finding it very strange that a vampire could cook and that Bella just gave it all away when she was done, but Patrick also had a point that life as a vampire could be very stagnated and boring and keeping yourself busy was a must.

"So when was your mother born?"

"Mom was born in 1908, and she was changed in 1930, right at the beginning of the Great Depression," Patrick said immediately.

"I can see why your mother knows how to cook as back then all women were taught how to, although I know that some didn't enjoy being taught. Back then it was an essential skill as there was no way that a man would have even thought about learning what he would have considered woman's work."

"And even if a man did know how to cook he would never admit it out loud as he would've been an outcast if he did," Patrick added, which Julia nodded in agreement with. "Both my parents were born in a totally different time you know and my father is not quite eighty years older then my mother."

"So he was born in about...1843?" Julia calculated.

"About that yes, and he was turned into a vampire 20 years later," Patrick confirmed.

The two fell silent just enjoying each other company for awhile longer, but then Julia finally asked, "Could you help me change my clothes so that we can head downstairs?"

"Sure, but are you sure you don't want me to call your sister up here to help you?" asked Patrick. "I don't mind helping you if that's what you want," Patrick added hastily hoping Julia hadn't taken offence, "but I just figured you might not be ready for me to see your bare skin."

Julia blushed at the way the Patrick phrased his words as she could very easily tell that he would be ecstatic to see her naked, but also that he was trying to also be a gentleman by repressing his own desires for right now.

"I don't mind," Julia finally decided. "You are going to be seeing a lot of me in nothing, but my birthday suit once I am changed sometime in the next week or so."

"I can hardly wait," Patrick said trying not to look as if he was figuratively drooling.

"I just bet you can't," Julia teased Patrick lightly feeling better than she had in a long time despite the fact that the cancer was still raging through her body.

"Hey, I may be a vampire, but I'm still enough of a man to have certain desires," Patrick protested laughingly.

Julia smirked at that, but then said, "My clothes, if you please?"

"Right away," Patrick said leaping off the couch in order to do his mate's bidding racing out the door and towards the room that Julia would have been sleeping in if she hadn't stayed with him all night.

When Patrick returned it was only seconds later Julia admiringly thought that vampire speed would come in handy on occasion.

Patrick put Julia's suitcases on the empty couch cushion and snapped open the lid so that Julia could pick out her own clothes.

Once Julia had finished picking out the clothes that she wanted to wear she said, "The only help I need from you is for you to help me stand long enough in order to put my underwear and pants on as I'm very unsteady on my feet thanks to my muscles being so weak."

"Your wish is my command, my lady," Patrick told his mate with a heart shattering grin that made Julia even weaker in the knees then she already was, but this time it wasn't from the cancer, but because Patrick's expression was so breathtakingly gorgeous.

Patrick helped Julia pull off her shirt over her head and then he very gently helped to her to stand and pull the sweat pants and underwear down around her ankles which Julia then stepped out of before sitting back down on the edge of the couch.

Patrick very gently pulled Julia's underwear over her feet and then did the same to her pants before helping her to stand and so that he could pull them all the way up around her waist. When Julia was sitting on the edge of the couch again he helped her on with her shirt and bra.

"Can you brush my hair for me?" asked Julia a little shyly.

"Of course," Patrick agreed secretly delighted that Julia was already depending on his help so much, which he thought was pretty unusual since from what Julia had told him about herself she was a pretty independent individual. "I'll be as gentle as possible."

"I already know you will," Julia said as she sat up as far she could without falling off the couch so that Patrick could brush her hair without too much trouble.

"Here instead of you sitting on the edge of the couch and risk falling off why don't you just sit on my lap," Patrick suggested. "That is if you don't mind."

"I don't mind in the least," Julia said secretly delighted to be as close to Patrick as possible.

It took a few seconds for Patrick to move Julia's suitcases onto the floor and to sit down, but once that was accomplished he very gently pulled Julia onto his lap and took the hairbrush she handed him and immediately started to gently brush her hair until all the tangles had been worked out.

"You have a very gentle touch," Julia told him with a contented sigh sitting back against Patrick's chest not protesting in the least as he worked out all the tangles in her hair, not there were many considering how short it still was.

"Thank you, but I don't think I would try my best to be so gentle with anyone else," Patrick admitted. "Even though I've only known you for a very short amount of time I already love you and I'll do everything in my power to never hurt you either physically, emotionally or mentally."

"And I'll do the same," Julia promised Patrick solemnly, "as I already love you too and that's something of a surprise considering we've known each other for less than 24 hours."

Patrick's face broke into another one of those gorgeous grins that made Julia just want to do things to him that she knew she wasn't up to until after she was changed.

"So when are you going to be changed?" asked Patrick as he finished brushing Julia's short red hair.

"Well, I'm really ready anytime and I know my siblings are too. Besides the sooner I'm changed, the sooner I can start my life with you and I can't wait for that part. I also can't wait to not be so weak to where I can't even walk on my own without being carried. It not that I don't enjoy being carried in your arms, but I still would like to be able to get around on my own and I haven't been able to do that for several months which is damned annoying."

"I can only imagine how you feel since vampire's can't get cancer or any other disease," Patrick said. "Well, shall we head downstairs so we can assure your brothers and sister that I haven't killed you in your sleep?"

Julia laughed at that and said, "All right."

With Julia's agreement Patrick picked her up gently and cradled her body against his chest tenderly carrying her out of his bedroom and down the stairs to the living room.

~~~Bryon and Scott~~~

"Well there she is," Jason teased Julia as soon as Patrick had set his sister down on the love seat. "Have a good night's sleep?"

"Yes, Jason, I certainly slept better than I have a very long time."

"I wonder why," Alisa said grinning at Patrick who had joined Julia on the love seat thinking it was very obvious why her sister had slept so much better then she had ever since she had gotten leukemia.

"Now that you're here, Julia what would you like for breakfast?" asked Bella.

"Just some toast is fine with me," Julia said. "I'm sure you know I haven't had much of an appetite in the last few years."

"You need to eat more than toast, sis," Henry protested looking concerned just like he always did when Julia didn't eat much.

"Why? I'll soon be a vampire anyway so why force myself to eat what I have no appetite for? Besides eating too much will only cause me to be queasy, which in turn will cause me to throw up what little I've eaten in the first place, so why bother?"

Henry had to concede that Julia had a point, but it always concerned him when she couldn't manage more than a few bites of whatever she was eating.

"Besides I'm sure the Whitlocks wouldn't appreciate me throwing up all over their very nice carpet."

The carpet in question was a very nice rich blue and very thick. In fact the carpet was so thick that Julia couldn't even hear Patrick's footfalls or anybody's else's either.

Patrick and the other Whitlocks in the room laughed at that. Patrick continued to chuckle and told Julia. "It doesn't really matter we can always have it replaced."

"Having such a nice, thick carpet must've cost you a fortune to buy and get laid down, so I don't want to ruin it by throwing up all over it," Julia said looking down at the carpet in question. All the carpet she had ever encountered when she was growing up had been very thin and not as soft as this one was.

"So I believe you were saying last night that you have some kind of empathic talent?" Julia asked Jasper with her head comfortably laying on Patrick lap and he didn't seem to mind in the least.

"I did," Jasper agreed. "Some vampires once they are changed turn out to have extra talents and it's always the strongest trait when they were human. Back when I was born my strongest trait was my charisma and when I was turned into a vampire that developed into my empathic talent. I remember as a child I could convince almost anybody of anything without too much trouble and it always got me out of a bad situation or if I was about to be fussed at."

"So do all vampires have extra talents?" asked Jason fascinated which Jasper could hardly blame him for as he supposed it was a very fascinating subject.

"No, most of our kind don't actually and are ordinary run-of-the-mill vampires."

"As if being super strong, faster than lightning, able to see, smell, and hear better then a human could ever hope to without a lot of advanced equipment is anything to sneeze at," Alisa chuckled.

"You do have a point," Bryon said who was sitting on the couch his arm around Scott's shoulders looking relaxed and happy and far less tense then he had when he had been in Melrose, "although I'm sure most, if not all of our kind, don't ever think of what they can do like that, probably because it's so ordinary to them even if it's not too humans."

It was only a few minutes later that Bella came back into the den with a large tray filled with lots of breakfast foods pancakes, bacon, eggs, toast, and a bowl of fruit as well.

"Eat up all of you," Bella told her human guests. "You might as well enjoy what is going to be one of your last meals before you'll never be able to eat anything but blood again.

"Hmm, it smells absolutely heavenly," Jason said, "and I'm starving."

Everybody in the room chuckled at that and Jason didn't seem to mind. "What can I say except that I'm a growing boy. I'm only 18 after all and most males don't stop being bottomless pits until they're at least 25. I had just finished my high school education when Scott showed up out of the blue and then told us that he was now a vampire." They had indeed celebrated Jason's eighteenth birthday just a few days before all the Blackwoods and Bryon had had left Melrose for the airport.

"Hey at least I waited until you were done with high school," Scott protested from where he was seated with his head on Bryon's shoulder. "I could have come much sooner you know, and as you are aware, if you had all been healthy and happy you never would have known I was there."

"I'm glad it didn't happen that way, or I never would've met Julia," Patrick said running a hand through Julia's short hair tenderly, "and in the short time we've known each other she's come to mean everything to me."

"Which is as it should be," Bella said who looked as if she would be crying from happiness if she had been able. Patrick had been alone for so long that it was so nice as well as surprising that he had finally found his mate, even if she was very ill at the moment.

Jasper put an arm around Bella shoulders and kissed her on the cheek and Bella contentedly put her head on Jasper's shoulder letting him know without words that there was no other place she'd rather be causing him to almost unconsciously start to run his fingers up and down her arm in what was a very intimate gesture. No words had had been exchanged as none needed to be and yet Jasper and Bella's actions demonstrated to anybody watching that they were very much in love and always would be.

"I'm glad I met you too," Julia told Patrick from where she was laying with her head across his lap.

"Yeah why don't you sit up and eat what you can," Patrick said. "You need to eat at least a little anyway."

"All right," Julia agreed as all four of other sibling stated her incredulously. "What?" She added when she saw her siblings looking at her as if she had grown two heads.

"Are you are you feeling alright, sis?" asked Henry his astonishment plain in his expression as well as his voice.

"Yes, why do you ask that?" asked Julia.

"Because normally we have to argue with you to get you to eat anything at all and yet when Patrick suggested you eat you just agreed with him without arguing even a little. The three of us find that absolutely astonishing as we've had to struggle to get you to eat for at least the last couple years ever since the leukemia really took hold of your body," Alisa said staring at her sister as she didn't recognize her at all.

"Yes, well unlike you guys Patrick doesn't annoy me to get me to do what he wants," Julia said taking a bite of her toast.

"What's the difference?" asked Jason his lips twitching in amusement.

"I believe the only difference is that she's in love with Patrick and although she loves us too it is the kind of love you have for your brothers and sisters and not romantic in nature. Patrick doesn't trigger her arguing instincts like we do because we're her siblings and she grew up with us," Henry said grinning conspiratorially at Patrick, who grinned back, while running a hand up and down Julia's back tenderly.

Henry admitted very privately then if only to himself that he liked Patrick a great deal and certainly more than he ever had Jack. Actually, he and his other siblings had better get used to the idea that Julia and Patrick were now an item and weren't about to be separated for any reason. He was sure he'd be torn apart if he tried and he definitely had more sense then to get a vampire angry with him even once he was a vampire himself. Besides it was so nice to see Julia happy as she hadn't been in the last three years ever since she an Jack had broken up and she had learned that she had leukemia, all within days of each other. Leukemia was really the most deadly cancer known to man and harder to survive then other kinds.

The breakfast food soon disappeared and Henry noted silently pleased that Julia had eaten more than a couple of pieces of toast at Patrick's urging, although it still wasn't really enough to keep a bird alive, much less a human being, but still it was better then the amount she had been eating.

"So what now?" asked Alisa.

"Well, you need to pick the time you want to become vampires, although we can't afford to wait too long because of Julia," Jasper explained. "You said last night that you wanted to go ahead and get it over with since none of you were looking forward to the pain that is a necessary part of the transformation. If you still think that this morning we can go ahead and do it right now if you want."

"Personally I vote for right now," Jason said. "The sooner we get it over with the better as far as I'm concerned."

"I agree," Alisa said and Henry nodded in agreement.

"Julia what do you think?" asked Patrick as Julia was the only one that hadn't answered the question yet.

"I say let's go for it right now as I'm the only one of you that should be anxious to be transformed into a vampire just so I can walk across the room on my own again without having to be carried everywhere," Julia answered. "Besides I'm more than ready to start my life with Patrick. I for one certainly never expected to fall in love when I agreed to be transformed into a vampire so I wouldn't die from this disease."

"Alright then," Jasper said. "The four of you will have separate rooms where you will be transformed into vampires. You will all be bitten within minutes of each other as it's not a good idea to have any humans in the house with newborn vampire as I explained last night."

"I want Patrick to be the one to bite me and interject his venom into my body," Julia requested.

Patrick lit up at that, but then immediately looked worried. "As much as I would love to I don't know if that's a good idea as I've never tried to not drain someone before and it is a very difficult to stop in the middle of a meal. I'm not sure I have that kind of control that I need to take just a little bit of your blood and inject my venom into your system without killing you. It might be better if dad does it since he'd done it a lot before and he has the control necessary."

"I think you underestimate yourself," Julia told him with a pleading look, which made Patrick cave almost immediately.

"Look bro," Bryon said, "if I could inject by venom into Scott and not kill him then you can do the same. Just do what I did and you'll be all right."

"What did you do?" asked Patrick with a raised eyebrow.

Bryon told him and Patrick nodded as it made sense.

"Also either Bryon or myself will be standing by so that we can stop you from draining Julia on accident," Jasper told his son and Patrick nodded again feeling a lot better about the situation.

"How will you stop Patrick from draining our sister dry?" Henry asked having no idea what they were talking about.

"Remember I told you about my empathic talent?" ask Jasper and all four of the humans in the room nodded. "Well, Bryon has it too as he got it from me when he was born."

"But that still doesn't explain…" Jason began, but Henry shushed him with a finger raised to his lips.

"What I was about to say," Jasper began to explain not even seeming to notice that he had been interrupted at all, "is that whoever was on guard would simply send Patrick so much pain that he would have no choice but to stop what he was doing as even a vampire can double over in agony. It's not the option I choose to tell you the truth as I really don't want to hurt my son but if Patrick killed his mate it would kill him as well."

"If that happens I forgive you in advance because you are right that if Julia were to die I wouldn't be able to live and I'd rather be in a lot of pain temporarily then kill her," Patrick told his father and brother and Jasper and Bryon both nodded looking relieved.

"It's settled then," Bella said coming back from the kitchen where she had been washing the dishes and putting them away at vampire speed and listening to the conversation going on in the den at the same time. "Luckily for us this house is way off the beaten track so it is very unlikely that any of you will be heard screaming and on the unlikely chance you are we'll simply dispose of the evidence."

Bella words were said in such a matter of fact way that it took the four Blackwoods a second to absorb it and then they all shuddered collectively glad that they weren't intruders.

"Okay, I'll take Julia upstairs," Patrick said, rising to his feet.

"Why don't you use one of the guest rooms," Bella suggested, "and that way you can actually lay beside her as she goes through her transformation since I'm sure you don't plan on leaving her side at all during it."

Patrick shook his head back and forth violently not saying anything, but both his parents could see the determination in his eyes and it wasn't like they would have done any less if it was their mate that was being transformed into a vampire.

Patrick picked Julia up in his arms gently and she immediately put her head on his shoulder and Patrick tenderly kissed her on the forehead before heading upstairs. The other other three Blackwoods followed Patrick and their sister and just a second later the den was empty, except for Jasper and Bella.

"Our oldest son is in love," Bella said smiling up at Jasper.

"Yes, he is," Jasper agreed also smiling looking in the direction of the stairs.

"Now if the rest of them would just find mates, so they can start to be as happy as we've always been," Bella said after a moment.

"It might or might not happen somewhere down the road, but if it doesn't at least they have their family," Jasper said.

Bella nodded in agreement. "Yeah I think we're pretty lucky."

"So do I," Jasper agreed giving Bella a kiss on the lips.

When Jasper and Bella pulled away from each other after a long moment Jasper said, "As much as I would like to continue this in our bedroom we do have a responsibility."

"Yes, we do," Bella agreed sounding just as disappointed as Jasper did.

"Don't worry I'll take a rain check and we can continue this later," Jasper promised his voice husky.

"I hope it's not too much later," Bella said looking at Jasper with such love and affection in her eyes that it nearly took his breath away even though he didn't really need to breathe in the first place. "I love you, Jasper," Bella told her mate softly kissing him gently on the lips again. "I don't think I tell you that nearly often enough, but I do. You are my air, my reason to continue existing in this life."

"You might not say the actual words, but you show me every day how much you love me," Jasper told Bella returning the kiss. "I hope you know that I love you as well even though I don't say the words as often as I should."

"I do," Bella assured him putting a finger to his lips to stop his words. "We'll continue this discussion later, but right now we have four people to turn into vampires."

"I'm not looking forward to having to deal with four newborns," Jasper said making a face, "I thought I was done doing that after I escaped the Southern Wars, but Scott was right when he found out Julia was so sick that it wouldn't've been right to just let her die. Besides Julia's death would have destroyed Scott and I don't think even Bryon would have been able to fill the void left by her death completely."

"Not to mention Patrick would have lost his mate even though he never would have met her and so wouldn't have known it," Bella added.

"Yes, there is that too," Jasper agreed, "so I suppose it's just as well that things worked out as they did."

"You are forgetting one thing, love," Bella said after the moment.

"What's that?" asked Jasper with a raised eyebrow.

"I'm sure that Julia and Patrick will be spending most of their time together so you really don't have to worry about her at all as Patrick will take responsibility for his mate I'm sure, although he might still come to you for advice now and then."

"That's true enough, I hadn't thought of that, although I should have," Jasper said. "So that means I will only have three newborns to really deal with instead of four, which will help considerably."

"Also I'm sure Bryon and Scott as well as some of our other children will help out with the other three newborns so you're work will be considerably less then it was in the past. You do have a family now to help with the training and everything, you know," Bella pointed out quite logically.

"Also true," Jasper said looking considerably relieved. "If you, Bryon, Scott and some of the others help out I won't have as much trouble keeping three newborns under control. I am going to have to figure out some other way to control them if it becomes necessary though, because I don't want to use pain like I did when I was part of Maria's army."

"I'm sure you'll figure out something," Bella said, "and maybe you won't ever have to use it even when you do figure out something that will stop them from going out of control."

"We never had to worry about this before now, because we've just had one newborn to deal with recently and that was Scott who was much more controlled from the beginning then I expected him to be."

"We had better go ahead and get upstairs I'm sure they're ready to begin by now," Bella said and Jasper nodded heading towards the stairs Bella following surreptitiously admiring her husband's butt along the way. What a fine ass her mate had, and it made Bella salivate and get very wet down in her pussy every time she saw it, but unfortunately they didn't have time to do what she really wanted to right now as right now they had responsibilities and no time to sate hers and Jasper's desires, unfortunately.

~~~Bryon and Scott~~~

"Are you ready?" Jasper asked his oldest son after he had entered the guestroom where Patrick had gently lay Julia on the double bed that was up against one wall.

Patrick nodded nervously.

"That's no need to be nervous, son, I will not let you hurt your mate, I promise," Jasper told his son soothingly not really able to blame Patrick for being so nervous since his son had never tried to change a human into a vampire before and it wasn't exactly the easiest thing in the world to do. A vampire had to have almost a control of iron over their demon in order to deliberately change a human into a vampire as a vampire's lust for blood was almost like a mad beast's that had the taste for human flesh. It also helped to be as stubborn as possible for that meant you had a strong will and that alone would make it easier to control the demon part of you.

Patrick looked into his father's compassionate eyes and nodded again looking a little bit less nervous.

"I know you can do this, Patrick," Julia told him. "I know you won't hurt me."

Patrick looked into Julia's green eyes that he was going to sincerely miss once they were the normal vampire red, but not enough to not change her and nodded more resolutely then before for if his mate had faith in him he just needed to have more faith in himself that he could do this.

Jasper hid a smile as he saw his son's transformation as Julia's words that had more of an impact on Patrick then his own had, which made sense if he really thought about it.

"I'm ready," Patrick told his father his expression determined.

"Alright then I'll be right here. I believe you know what to do."

Patrick nodded again and leaned over the form of a reclining Julia stretch out on the bed.

Patrick seemed to steel himself and then almost gently bit into the side of his mate's neck taking a few gulps of blood. Jasper watched his son closely just to make sure Patrick wasn't going to drain Julia dry, just because the vampire part of him got out of control, but after a few seconds Patrick raised his head again.

Jasper breathed a silent sigh of relief that Patrick had done it and hadn't appeared to have any trouble or at least it seemed that way. "Now the wrists and ankles," Jasper told his son.

Patrick nodded and did as he was told biting into each ankle and then each of Julia's wrist taking several gulps of blood each time.

As Patrick raised his head from his mate's right wrist Julia began to scream as if she was being slowly skinned by a thousand razor sharp knives and then boiled in lava, which in a way she was.

"I'm proud of you, Paddy," Jasper told his son sending him his pride that Patrick had managed to do what he needed to despite his nervousness.

Patrick stood a little straighter at his father's feeling of pride in him as he gradually came to realize that he had indeed done it and that he should be justly proud of himself.

"Now that you know you can do it, if you decide to turn a human into a vampire for whatever the reason you know that you can," Jasper told his son.

"I don't think that's too likely dad," Patrick said and would have blushed at his father praise if he could have. "Julia, told me she wanted children and I really wouldn't mind having a few little ones running around someday, but not to soon."

"Your mother would love to have some grandchildren, someday," Jasper told Patrick with a certain excited gleam in his red eyes, "and for that matter so would I, but as you said not to soon as you and Julia need time to work on your relationship. If anybody should consider giving us a few grandchildren to spoil it's Brianna and Gerik or Lindsey and Trey as they've been mated for quite a few years already."

Patrick laughed at that knowing exactly what his father meant. "I don't think either couple is in a hurry to have children, dad, so I think you are going to be grandchildren deprived at least for the moment."

"You're right," Jasper admitted. "I told Bella that we can't force them to have children when they apparently aren't ready. Maybe 50 years from now they're finally give us some as it isn't like they'll get to old to have them like a human would. A human only has a certain number of breeding years before they get to old to have children anymore, but thanks to us being vampires that isn't even a consideration."

Patrick nodded knowing his father was spot on.

"I'll leave you and Julia alone now," Jasper said finally, "as I've got to go bite the others so that they can start their own transformations."

"Thanks dad," Patrick said as he lay down on the bed beside his mate, holding her tenderly and gently in his arms talking softly to her as Julia continued to scream at the top of her lungs from the venom racing through her body.

"You're welcome, son," Jasper told Patrick softly as he let himself out of the guest bedroom closing the door gently behind him.

To be continued...


End file.
